Honduran fentanyl trafficker, deported after a lenient ‘fast track’ sentence, promptly returned to U.S.
A drug trafficker who was given a lenient ‘time served’ sentence after being caught driving half a kilo of fentanyl to San Francisco, and who was then deported to Honduras, for the second time, promptly returned to the United States and carried on living with his family in the East Bay, a court heard today.
Erlin Hernandez Flores was convicted of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl in December 2023 after an incident in which a California Highway Patrol K9 dog detected drugs during a traffic stop.
Flores, 33, confessed to law enforcement and said that he expected to make $4,000 from the delivery.
This morning he appeared for a detention hearing in courtroom G of San Francisco federal courthouse before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Cisneros.
“The Government is seeking detention,” assistant U.S. attorney Kelsey Davidson told the court.
“The defendant already received significant leniency when he was a member of the ‘fast track’ program,” she said, referring to federal prosecutors’ scheme to rapidly deport illegal aliens.
“This is his second removal,” Davidson noted.
“It is very clear that he cannot be trusted to obey court orders.”
Flores’ attorney asked the court to release him on an ankle monitor. Her client, she said, lived in Hayward with his wife and young son and worked in a machine shop earning a legitimate living.
The defendant’s long-term plan, the court heard, was to return with his family to Honduras and to start a business there.
“I think that this is difficult from a human standpoint because I don’t doubt the feelings the defendant has for his family,” said Judge Cisneros, “but in some ways that sort of incentivizes not appearing.”
“I don’t think the defendant has overcome the burden he has to show that there are conditions on which I could release him and still assure his appearance in court,” she concluded.
After Flores’ presence in the U.S. came to authorities’ attention — through a contact with Union City police department on February 15 2025 — he was first brought to San Francisco’s Hall of Justice to answer two open cases arising from his multiple arrests in 2022 for drug dealing in the Tenderloin district.
“Hernandez is charged with non-violent drug charges from 2022 and 2023,” wrote defense attorney Adam Lipson in a motion. “He has since had a child, gotten good employment and made a better life for himself and his community.”
After those cases were resolved on April 8 2025, with a guilty plea to possession for sale of cocaine and the imposition of a time served sentence, he was transferred to federal custody. While presumably this was accomplished by the Sheriff’s office fully abiding by its commitment to the city’s sanctuary ordinances it remains unclear precisely how this was achieved.
Flores was brought to court wearing clothing issued to San Francisco County Jail inmates.
He will next appear before U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson on May 9.
The case continues.
This story has been updated.
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