Federal judge upbraids Tenderloin fentanyl dealer at sentencing
An illegal alien drug dealer with convictions for violence was sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment today for selling fentanyl and methamphetamine in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district.
Arlin Estrada, 24, a Honduran national, had earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of possession with intent to distribute each drug. The court was told that he was trying to earn money to support both his family back home and the three U.S.-citizen children that he had fathered since moving to the United States.
“He needs to spent time in prison and recognize that there are consequences for his incredibly dangerous conduct,” said U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley this afternoon at San Francisco federal courthouse.
“There is no doubt in my mind that, if he was released tomorrow, he’d be out on Golden Gate Avenue, where he continued to go back and back and back, dealing a drug which kills people.”
His is an instance of a defendant in an older drug case, coming before the court for sentencing, arguing that, when compared with lenient ‘fast track’ disposals being offered to other Honduran dealers recently, they risked being treated more severely for comparable offending.
This argument did not find much favor with the court. However, although the defendant was excoriated by the Judge in her sentencing remarks, the term she imposed sat squarely between the respective recommendations of the defense and Government.
The court was told that Estrada regularly commuted from his home in Oakland to the Tenderloin to sell drugs. His wares included fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, alprazolam and oxycodone.
In May 2021 SFPD officers executing a search warrant found 148 grams of suspected fentanyl, 134 grams of suspected methamphetamine and other drugs in Estrada’s possession.
He had racked-up numerous drug-related arrests in the months leading up to the search. Additionally, the court heard, he had a 2019 battery conviction for beating a man with a bat – which “arose out of a drug deal gone bad” according to the judge – and a 2021 false imprisonment conviction stemming from an incident where Estrada kicked a man on the ground with a group of others.
“His previous sentences, which have been relatively short, have failed to put him on a more lawful path in life,” Assistant U.S. Attorney George Hageman wrote in a sentencing memorandum in which he pressed for a 46-month prison term.
“Without a more significant custodial sentence, he is unlikely to acknowledge and understand the gravity of his actions and the need for a change.”
Requesting a sentence of 24 months, Estrada’s attorney noted that he had already been in prison on remand for 11 months in harsh conditions, which was already much longer than any sentence he had served in the past. His work as a low-level drug dealer, it was said, permitted him to send hardly any money home or leave much to support his significant other and their three children.
In particular, it was said, the Government’s proposed sentence was obviously higher that defendants being dealt with under the U.S. Attorney’s recent ‘fast track’ scheme designed rapidly to deport fentanyl dealers. Some of these defendants were deported after as little as two weeks in custody, the court was reminded.
The defense also pointed out that the Judge herself sentenced defendant Ivan Diaz two months ago to a term six months more than the 24 months being requested for Estrada, even though Diaz “had a twenty-year history of committing crimes in the United States.”
Judge Corley observed in response that, in the case of Diaz, the sentence range was part of a plea deal, unlike with the Estrada case in which there was a guilty plea with no agreement as to sentence.
“I would have given him more,” the Judge said of Diaz, “but since the Government agreed to it, it wouldn’t have been right – I thought he deserved more.”
“I’d like to say sorry to the court for having entered illegally in to this country, for the harm I caused by selling drugs in the street,” said Estrada this afternoon.
“I know you have reasons to be upset with me for everything I’ve done but I want you to know I feel great remorse.”
“It’s pretty apparent to me that Mr Estrada, in order for the public to be protected from future crimes, needs to be in prison,” said Judge Corley sentencing him to 36 months on both counts, each to run concurrent with the other.
“He needs to spend time in prison and recognize that there are consequences for his incredibly dangerous conduct. It’s not just people killed by fentanyl, but it’s also the neighborhood it kills, the businesses it kills, the business owners…now no one wants to be [in the Tenderloin] anymore.”
Estrada was told that he will be deported when his sentence has been served.
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