Honduran fentanyl dealer whose case became an election flashpoint leaves court with a wrist slap
A Honduran fentanyl dealer whose lenient treatment at the hands of superior court judges became a flashpoint in San Francisco judicial elections last year was further indulged by a judge this morning as she was given a slap on the wrist for drugs offenses in federal court.
Nicol Palma, 24, was arrested by SFPD in July 2023 after twice selling fentanyl to undercover officers in the city’s Tenderloin district. In her room, which she shared with her accomplice, police found two loaded firearms, 400 grams of fentanyl and more than $4000 in cash.
U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley imposed a sentence of three years’ supervised release. For the first year Palma will be on home detention and can leave only to take her children to school and to attend medical appointments.
Palma earlier pleaded guilty to three counts of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
Prosecutors told the court that the defendant had been repeatedly arrested in San Francisco for drugs sales, that she is in the United States illegally and that she had previously been deported.
They asked for a custodial sentence of no more than 54 months – the term that had already been imposed on her boyfriend and accomplice.
“Regardless of what we do here she still faces the risk of removal from the United States,” said Judge Corley today.
“I don’t know if and when it’s going to happen – I’m just not sure the public interest and public safety is served by putting her in prison.”
Palma was bailed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Alex Tse within days of her arrest and has been out of custody since. Posters prominently featuring Palma’s name, the amounts of fentanyl she was said to have been found with, and the names of two state judges who had previously released her, appeared around the city in the months before the March 2024 judicial elections.
An undercover SFPD officer arranged to meet Palma on June 9 2023 just one block from the federal courthouse in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. She retrieved fentanyl from a bag-carrying accomplice standing nearby and sold the officer three grams of the narcotic.
On June 21 2023 the undercover officer met Palma in the same location and purchased 28 grams of fentanyl from her.
Law enforcement executed a federal arrest and search warrant on July 6 2023. They followed a BMW from Oakland in which Palma, her boyfriend Jordy Aguilar and her cousin were traveling to San Francisco. Palma herself was carrying nearly 100 grams of fentanyl, 65 grams of methamphetamine, 45 grams of cocaine, two cellphones and a pair of scales.
A later search of the Oakland room she shared with Aguilar turned up two loaded guns, each equipped with an extended magazine, 400 grams of fentanyl, $4,394 in cash, the Honduran passports of Palma and Aguilar, plus receipts for money transfers to Honduras.
After three arrests in 2021 and 2022 Palma was bailed by judges at San Francisco’s Hall of Justice only to go back to selling fentanyl in the Tenderloin on each occasion. Further misfortune struck prosecutors when each of these cases were dismissed “due to an issue with an SFPD officer witness” – presumed to be Christina Hayes, who was the subject of a misconduct probe relating to her purported relationship with a confidential informant.
The failure of San Francisco authorities to complete any prosecutions allowed Palma’s attorney to tell the court that her “lack of any criminal history” was a mitigating factor ahead of today’s sentencing hearing.
Today in courtroom eight of San Francisco federal courthouse, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley decided that the seven days Palma had originally served in custody when she was arrested was sufficient and that a period of home detention was the correct sentence.
Palma’s two children – one an infant – weighed on the judge’s mind.
“I’m just…trying to think about what is in the public interest given the very serious nature of a very serious crime, but with respect to the extraordinary circumstances of her children,” she told assistant U.S. attorney John Ullom.
“I’m concerned about the general deterrence – that cartels who are using these young people to sell drugs don’t start using mothers – but the way she has performed over the last year and a half…she has demonstrated that she is committed [to not breaking the law].
“Regardless of what we do here she still faces the risk of removal from the United States,” she continued. “I don’t know if and when it’s going to happen – I’m just not sure the public interest and public safety is served by putting her in prison.”
She acknowledged the severity of the case, adding. “I understand that it was a lot of drugs.”
“We have multiple controlled buys, a search warrant service that uncovered significant amounts of fentanyl and, most troublingly, two firearms…and a large sum of cash and receipts indicating that additional money had been sent back to other parties,” Ullom told the judge.
He pointed out that Judge Corley had sentenced Palma’s boyfriend and accomplice, Jordy Aguilar, to 54 months’ imprisonment and that there was a need to ensure defendants in similar circumstances received similar sentences.
“It’s not a free pass by any means,” said Palma’s attorney Richard Tamor – who highlighted that his client had not committed further crimes while on pretrial release.
The court was told that an immigration attorney from the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office was assisting Palma in her effort to remain in the country.
“I would like to apologize for all of the mistakes I have made in the past,” Palma told the court this morning via a Spanish language interpreter.
“Please take into account how sorry how very sorry I am for everything I did. The only thing that I’m asking for is a chance to be with my children,” she concluded.
That Palma left federal court today will hearten opponents of the Trump administration’s renewed drive to deport those illegal aliens who have committed further crimes in the U.S.
“In San Francisco, we value our immigrant communities,” said Mayor Daniel Lurie yesterday on the steps of City Hall—blurring the distinction between illegal aliens and lawful immigrants as he defended the city’s ‘sanctuary’ ordinances.
“We recognize your contributions to our city, and we stand with you. You belong here,” Lurie said.
“I’ve always said that public safety is my first priority. That means everyone in our city should feel comfortable interacting with local law enforcement and accessing city services,” he continued.
“For decades, we have had policies that do just that. These policies make us all safer.”
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