“Not even somewhere else!” – astonished federal judge sentences Honduran who skipped bail and returned to sell drugs at the same spot in San Francisco’s Tenderloin
An illegal alien who fled to Honduras while on bail in three San Francisco drug trafficking cases, who then returned to the city and was again caught selling fentanyl in the Tenderloin district, was sentenced to 32 months’ federal imprisonment today.
Ana Maldonado, 27, was seen drug dealing on Golden Gate Avenue by SFPD officers on the evening of November 28 2025.
She had drugs packaged for sale and was armed with a knife.
Although she gave a false name, police quickly discovered her true identity and that she had two open state warrants and one open federal warrant.
“She decided to return and deal drugs in the exact same neighborhood to those vulnerable people – not even somewhere else!” exclaimed an incredulous U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley this morning.
As a result of her November 2025 arrest, Maldonado pleaded guilty to one count of accessory after the fact and, after serving 46 days in jail, was sentenced by Judge Simon Frankel to a suspended term of two years’ probation. Two felony and one misdemeanor drug charges were dropped.
She was then handed back to federal authorities.
In December 2020 a federal grand jury indicted Maldonado and six accomplices on charges of conspiracy to traffic fentanyl. She was promptly given bail but, two months ahead of her trial date, she fled.
It emerged that she returned to Honduras and waited until the heat was off before returning to the city and peddling narcotics again in the Tenderloin.
In the intervening period her co-defendants, not given bail, were sentenced to terms of between 19 and 51 months’ imprisonment.
This morning in courtroom 8 of San Francisco federal courthouse, Judge Corley sentenced Maldonado to 32 months.
“Even when she pleaded guilty to drug sales in January of this year, she received a suspended sentence in the state system with credit for 46 days served,” wrote assistant U.S. attorney Sailaja Paidipaty in a sentencing memorandum in which she invited the court to impose a 36 month term.
“Simply put, the calculus here is one where the risk of dealing fentanyl does not outweigh the monetary reward. The court must impose a multi-year sentence to demonstrate to Maldonado and others similarly situated that fentanyl dealing, particularly as part of a larger conspiracy, carries considerable penalties.”
“From the bottom of my heart I have promised God never again to get involved in drugs or anything that hurts people,” Maldonado told the court this morning through a Spanish interpreter.
“I want to promise you that you will never see me again here for another crime.”
Maldonado’s attorney has asked the court to sentence her to 24 months.
“She returned and she dealt drugs again in the Tenderloin, and she did it knowing she had charges against her and that she absconded,” said Judge Corley.
“She came back – and she came back and she dealt drugs in the same community where really vulnerable people are. She took advantage of those people and the sentence has to reflect her really poor judgment and it also has to adequately deter.”
Maldonado was told to expect deportation on her release.
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