Honduran fentanyl dealer returned to dealing fentanyl in San Francisco after Alameda authorities foiled feds deportation effort

October 10, 2024

A Honduran drug dealer given a lenient ‘fast track’ deportation sentence in May made a surprise return to court today after it emerged officials at the Alameda jail used by federal authorities had foiled his handover to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and then let him go.

Instead of going straight back to Honduras, Jose Moises Hernandez-Mendoza went straight back to San Francisco where he was caught peddling fentanyl again outside a public library.

Hernandez-Mendoza was arraigned this morning for alleged probation violations at San Francisco federal courthouse before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Kang.

The court was told that Hernandez-Mendoza intends to seek release at a later date.

33-year-old Hernandez-Mendoza had been arrested on March 23 2024 near the intersection of Hyde and Fulton Streets in the city’s Tenderloin district in possession of fentanyl and methamphetamine.

Police were concerned to see him selling drugs in the vicinity before his arrest. He had been arrested four times in the Tenderloin since March 2023 for drug possession and sales and had been told to stay out of the neighborhood by San Francisco judges.

In the face of local officials’ torpid approach, federal prosecutors charged Hernandez-Mendoza with possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. They offered him a deal whereby he would receive a time served sentence of a little over a month and then be immediately handed over to ICE officers for removal.

This ‘fast track’ scheme, in operation for fifteen months, is a key plank of the U.S. Attorney’s strategy to address rampant drug crime and an atmosphere of lawlessness in some city neighborhoods. Federal judges in Northern California are divided on the program, with some refusing to impose what they say are unduly lenient sentences.

On May 8 2024 at a hearing at San Francisco federal courthouse U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley accepted Hernandez-Mendoza’s guilty plea and imposed the recommended sentence of time served plus one business day.

“I understand that you are not in the United States legally; that it is expected that upon your sentence you will be released into the custody of the United States immigration authorities, and it’s almost virtually certain that you will be removed from the United States and returned to Honduras,” Corley told the defendant.

“I just want you to understand that, even though [this order] says to stay out of the Tenderloin, you…in reality, must stay out of the United States.”

“Please, please do me a favor when you get back to Honduras,” added the judge, “of please spreading the word about how harmful and deadly what they’re doing is – and that it’s just not being tolerated here anymore.”

Prosecutors say that after he was sentenced – with the intent that he would be handed over to U.S. Marshals and thence to ICE – “Alameda County/Santa Rita Jail then released Hernandez-Mendoza back into the community…”

Alameda County is a ‘sanctuary jurisdiction’ and refuses to cooperate with immigration authorities.

Just over four months later, on September 18 2024, Hernandez-Mendoza was caught with fentanyl and methamphetamine after selling drugs to an undercover SFPD officer near the front door of San Francisco’s main public library on Larkin Street.

After he was arraigned on alleged probation violations today, Hernandez Mendoza was ordered by Judge Kang to return to court on October 15 at 10:30am for further proceedings. He remains in custody.

The case continues.