Spanish influencer dies while livestreaming drug challenge

Spanish police are investigating after a Spanish influencer died on air early in the New Year while taking part in a cocaine-fueled money challenge.

Sergio Jiménez, who turned 37 on December 13, agreed to consume six grams of cocaine and a bottle of whiskey for viewers who bought the products from him and paid to see him do it in less than three hours, according to media reports.

He lived with his mother Teresa in Vilanova i la Geltru, just southwest of Barcelona. She noticed her door ajar when she woke up around 2 a.m. last Wednesday, she told newspaper El Periódico de Catalunya.

“I asked him what he was doing, but he didn’t answer,” she told the newspaper.

She tried to make her way through, but something was blocking the door. Worried, Teresa called her other sons, and one of them, Daniel, came immediately, she said.

He made his way into the bedroom to find his brother kneeling on the floor next to the bed as if in prayer, his head pressed against the mattress and his palm wrapped tightly around his phone, which was still live, he told El Periódico. He was stiff and cold. A near-empty bottle of whiskey, two cans of energy drink, and a small pile of cocaine on a strip of red paper sat on a nearby table.

Viewers’ voices could be heard on the phone, according to Daniel, and they were asking: “Are you sleeping off your hangover yet Sergio? Haven’t you finished your bottle of whisky?”

Jiménez allegedly impersonated streamer Simón Pérez, a failed real estate developer who now makes his money using drugs in front of paying audiences live on various platforms, according to El País. Jiménez, known as “Sancho” or “Sssanchopanza” on streaming platforms Kick and Twitch, created his own spin-off after starring alongside his mentor in a series of such videos in October.

Teresa’s other son, Jordi, had told their mother that Jiménez made extreme videos. He already suffered from mental illness and drug addiction, she said.

Catalan police, Mossos d’Esquadra, have ordered an autopsy and are investigating the matter as a possible crime, looking into who supplied the drugs, who encouraged Jiménez, and other factors, they told El País. Police also released a video warning against participating in dangerous “viral challenges.”