Federal charges for “professional” Honduran fentanyl trafficker freed by San Francisco authorities after 1kg+ drugs haul
A drug dealer whose arrest with a kilo of fentanyl earlier this year was ballyhooed by San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins as evidence of the city’s success in tackling drug crime appeared in U.S. District Court today after federal authorities took over the case when she was bailed and carried on drug dealing.
Prosecutors say Cristel Cruz-Banegas regularly commuted from Oakland to the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco to sell narcotics. FBI agents who raided her home last month found a brick of fentanyl and a loaded gun. In her “stash house” elsewhere in Oakland they found more than 13 kilos of the deadly drug.
After an April 2024 arrest, when SFPD officers found her in the city’s Civic Center district with over a kilo of fentanyl, Cruz-Banegas was initially detained. Superior Court Judge Eric Fleming granted her bail on May 29 2024 and placed her on home detention. He later loosened her bail conditions so “she may work at night”.
Now a federal grand jury has charged the 24-year-old Honduran national with two counts of ‘distribution of fentanyl’ and one additional count of ‘possession with intent to distribute fentanyl’.
This afternoon at San Francisco federal courthouse U.S. District Judge Rita Lin was told by an attorney for the defendant that he anticipated his client would plead guilty in the new year.
Judge Lin ordered her to appear again on February 10 2025. She remains in custody having earlier waived her right to challenge her detention.
Cruz-Banegas was seen by police with a bag of suspected narcotics on the evening of April 16 2024 while she stood opposite the main branch of San Francisco library in the city’s Civic Center.
In her bag, officers found 1131 grams of fentanyl, 137 grams of suspected heroin, 135 grams of methamphetamine, smaller quantities of cocaine and a variety of prescription pills. She also had $1,812 in cash and a pair of digital scales.
Cruz-Banegas’ capture delighted district attorney Brooke Jenkins who, in a press release issued on the day of her arraignment at San Francisco’s Hall of Justice, congratulated SFPD on the arrest.
“Drug dealers who come to our city to traffic in death will be held accountable and face consequences for the death and misery that they are responsible for,” she said.
Jenkins’ release did not mention the nationality or immigration status of the defendant.
Cruz-Banegas was kept in custody until, on May 29 2024, Superior Court Judge Eric Fleming set bail at $50,000 and ordered that she be released on home detention. On June 28 Judge Fleming loosened her home detention to allow her to work. On October 7 she asked for all restrictions to be lifted and proposed that she should just wear the ankle monitor.
On October 16 2024 an FBI “undercover agent” contacted Cruz-Banegas to arrange to purchase fentanyl. The next day she sent a courier to meet the agent and sell eight ounces of fentanyl. Asked to supply more drugs, the courier returned to Cruz-Banegas’ house, resupplied, and returned to provide them. The courier confirmed that the defendant had sent him to conduct the deal.
The FBI confirmed that San Francisco Sheriff’s Department had reviewed the defendant’s ankle monitor records and that these showed her traveling “frequently” between Oakland and San Francisco in the early hours of the morning.
On November 14 a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Cruz-Banegas with two counts of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and one count of distribution of fentanyl.
On November 19 the FBI executed a search warrant both at Cruz-Banegas home on 38th Avenue in Oakland and what they described as a “stash house” located on 82nd Avenue in the city.
In her home they found a brick of fentanyl, a loaded Glock 19 handgun and a scale on a dining room table.
In the stash house, agents found more than 13 kilos of fentanyl along with a press, scales, cutting agents and cash which they describe as “all the tools of a drug dealing enterprise.”
The following day she appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson who ordered unsealed an indictment returned by a federal grand jury on November 14.
Court documents say that, in the five years since her arrival in the U.S., Cruz-Banegas has had a child. They show several different spellings for her name and she has previously given entirely false names to police officers.
Cruz-Banegas’ co-defendant, Cesia Ramirez-Barahona, also stands accused of one count of distribution of fentanyl. She too was arrested for drug-dealing by SFPD, on May 31 2024, subsequently released only for police to arrest her again on November 12 2024 selling fentanyl in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district.
It was her home, subsequently searched by the FBI, which was found to be being used as a stash house and in which more than 13 kilos of fentanyl were found.
Described as “a professional drug dealer” with “a lack of legitimate ties to the community” by Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Bisesto in a memorandum provided to the court, the 20-year-old Honduran was earlier ordered detained by U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim.
Another Honduran woman, Jessy Banegas Barahona, has also been charged with distribution of fentanyl and been ordered detained pending trial.
This month a federal court was told that approximately 130 people have been “successfully prosecuted” by the U.S. Attorney’s office since it joined an effort to combat city drug dealing last year.
In the majority of these cases defendants, which almost exclusively illegal aliens, have received ‘time served’ sentences and been immediately handed over to immigration authorities for deportation.
The rearrest of some of these in the United States is evidence that at least a proportion remain undeterred. Others have had their deportations foiled after the Alameda County Jail, in which the majority of federal prisoners are housed in the Bay Area, opted to free them rather than see them subject to removal.
‘Border Czar’ of the incoming Trump administration, Tom Homan, has indicated that next year immigration authorities will take a more aggressive stance to combat sanctuary jurisdictions’ protection for illegal aliens – with an immediate focus on those aliens who are national security threats or involved in serious crime.
“What mayor or governor doesn’t want public safety threats out of their communities?” Homan asked. “That’s their number one priority: to protect their communities. That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
Earlier today Homan met with the Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, to discuss whether and to what extent cooperation is possible in the arranging to deport foreign nationals who commit crimes in that city.
Incoming San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has said he will not upend the city’s sanctuary policies.
The cases continue.
Please support our work by using this Paypal link, or the QR code above
To be notified of new stories enter your email address here or follow us on X
