Police: Influencer’s deadly drug deal captured on LV Strip video

An early-morning drug deal at a Strip resort that led to the death of a popular social media influencer is documented on surveillance video, authorities say.

Anunay Sood, 32, was a Dubai-based travel blogger and native of India who came to Las Vegas in late October to generate social media content. He was found dead from fentanyl and ethanol toxicity on the morning of Nov. 4 in a hotel room at the Wynn Las Vegas.

Thamrong Hill, 49, has since been indicted by a Clark County grand jury on second-degree murder and drug charges after the Metropolitan Police Department said he sold the fentanyl that killed Sood.

Metro Detective Bryan Davila testified to the grand jury that the drug deal was captured on video surveillance from the Wynn.

“Luckily in Las Vegas, especially on a casino floor, there’s a lot of cameras,” Davila said. “So our first step is to backtrack kind of where they were on the casino floor and look at video surveillance.”

Sood’s acquaintance, Meher Chahal, and Sood’s fiance, Shivani Parihar, both of India, told the grand jury that on the morning of Sood’s death, Sood asked them to walk around and see if they could find someone who would sell Sood cocaine.

The women both said they approached a man sitting at a slot machine in the Wynn at about 5 a.m. and asked him if he knew anyone who would sell the drug. That interaction was depicted on the surveillance video, Davila said.

“So we asked him if we could score some cocaine from him, if he had any,” Chahal told the grand jury. “We asked him upfront and he was very quick to answer that I do.”

At the time Sood was elsewhere on the casino floor.

The women are depicted on the video trying to call Sood while talking with the man at the slot machine, Davila said. At one point one of the women uses the man’s cell phone to try and call Sood.

Parihar is then seen with Sood at an ATM, with Sood withdrawing money to pay for the drugs, Davila said. The detective said Parihar then approached the man alone at the slot machine while Sood lingers in the area. Parihar is shown on video receiving what police said was a small baggie from the man in exchange for $40.

“I went to him and he took out the packet from his pouch and he hid it on the table like very discreetly and I give the cash,” Parihar testified. “And we all three then went upstairs.”

The trio is depicted on video after the drug deal, riding in an elevator to their hotel rooms as they look at the baggie of drugs. Sood appears to be looking upward for cameras in the elevator at the time.

Witness testimony indicates Sood snorted some of the drugs with a rolled up $100 bill. Parihar and Chahal also sampled some but expressed reservations, according to the grand jury testimony. Parihar and Chahal went to sleep, then woke up to find Sood on the ground. His lip had turned blue. Drugs found at the scene tested positive for fentanyl, Davila said.

Davila said other video evidence from the Wynn showed the man who sold the drugs entering the property. Facial recognition technology, an extensive analysis of cell phone records and other evidence helped police identify Hill as the man in question, Davila said.

Hill remains in custody at the Clark County Detention Center. Court records show he is scheduled to be in court Thursday for discussion on who his court-appointed attorney will be.

Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com.