Damaged ankle monitors, long rap sheet, still free: judge refuses to detain deported Honduran dealer back in SF
A Honduran drug trafficker, who won bail last week having been arrested again in the U.S., appeared in court today after probation officials said he damaged two separate ankle monitors since release.
Santos Irias-Lobo, 35, remains a free man after a dubious judge at San Francisco federal courthouse gave him the benefit of the doubt. A government attorney indicated she may appeal the decision.
“I’m going to suspend disbelief,” said U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler this afternoon of the GPS monitor tampering, “[but] I have a very hard time believing it was anything other than purposeful.”
While Irias-Lobo’s continued release will doubtless lift the spirits of San Francisco’s opponents of immigration enforcement, including Mayor Daniel Lurie, the failure to act on this lowest of low-hanging fruit invites the question of whether removal operations have stalled altogether and whether officers have ‘quit the field’.
Irias-Lobo is facing a charge of illegal reentry of a previously removed alien plus accusations that he violated the terms of his supervised release by returning to the United States.
In 2019 he was arrested for San Francisco drug dealing three times, each either while wearing an ankle monitor or on probation. In 2018 he was arrested with drugs, more than $1,000 cash and a hatchet, in the city’s Tenderloin district, and subsequently served 95 days in jail.
After being released by San Francisco authorities one day after his arrest in November 2019, federal officials moved to prosecute him, only to see him bailed four days later. In September 2020 he was given a six month sentence by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen and was then deported.
Irias-Lobo’s rap sheet dates from 2013 when he was arrested twice in San Francisco, one of which was for drug dealing while carrying a knife.
This afternoon in courtroom B of San Francisco federal courthouse Judge Beeler heard from pretrial services officials who expressed deep skepticism that Irias-Lobo wasn’t trying to remove the device.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elisabeth Wilson asked the court to consider delaying the defendant’s release while she considered an appeal but was told that, as he was already free, the court would not do so.
“I did think that the personal circumstances of having a place to live with his fiance and her children, coupled with the electronic monitoring, did give, barely…assurances of showing up and mitigating danger to the community,” said Judge Beeler, outlining the reasoning behind her earlier release decision.
“If it happens again I don’t have any other options left,” warned the judge.
The case continues.
Please support our work by using this Paypal link
To be notified of new stories enter your email address here or follow us on X
