San Francisco’s hardest-working Honduran fentanyl dealer pleads guilty to fentanyl dealing in federal court after local judges tried practically nothing then gave up
A Honduran drug dealer with more than a dozen arrests in San Francisco pleaded guilty to six counts of possession with intent to distribute narcotics today at the city’s federal courthouse.
A federal complaint was leveled against Kevin Martinez-Cruz in December 2024 after he cut off his ankle monitor and continued to deal drugs after being bailed by a San Francisco judge. He had previously cut off another ankle monitor and continued to deal drugs while on bail and also fled from Sheriff’s officials who wanted to check another ankle monitor, which he had not yet managed to cut off, while on bail.
Prosecutors say that Kevin Martinez-Cruz has “a near continual history of contact with law enforcement in San Francisco’s Tenderloin for drug dealing” since 2018.
The 28-year-old had four extant ‘stay away’ orders from various parts of the city.
Federal officials combed through his San Francisco Superior Court cases and selected three of them to proceed with in U.S. District Court — two of the cases featuring his being seen by SFPD officers making drugs sales and then being found with fentanyl and methamphetamine packaged for sale, the third case involving his being found with both types of narcotic after a warrant arrest in the city.
Martinez-Cruz’ most recent criminal activity illustrates the abject failure of San Francisco’s criminal justice system to deal with the entirely manageable law enforcement problem he represented.
On April 4 2023 Superior Court Judge Patrick Thompson released Martinez-Cruz on condition that he wear an ankle monitor. Four months later he fled from Sheriff’s officials who were endeavoring to conduct a compliance check on him and spent eight days in jail as a result.
Then Judge Bruce Chan bailed Martinez-Cruz in his now three pending drugs cases on condition that he again wear an ankle monitor. One can only imagine the trusting judge’s disappointment when the very next morning Martinez-Cruz cut off the ankle monitor and went back to dealing drugs, next being arrested five months later for selling fentanyl on Market Street.
At that point local judiciary were galvanized into action and Martinez-Cruz spent 71 days in jail. But on March 11 2024 Judge Harry Jacobs, presumably certain that the third time would be the charm, agreed to send him on his way again, also on condition that he wear an ankle monitor.
This time the order met with somewhat greater success: the monitor remained on Martinez-Cruz’ ankle for an entire month before he cut it off.
There is no record that, at any point, any San Francisco judge sought to cause the illegal alien to be reported to federal immigration authorities.
At no point does it appear that any judge considered promptly putting him on trial.
It is an open question how many of the thousands of overdose deaths that have accrued since Martinez-Cruz first arrived in San Francisco have been as a consequence of drugs he peddled while on bail.
Eventually the San Francisco Police Department took the bull by the horns. One of its officers, disregarding the department’s strict ‘sanctuary’ rules with the preposterously thin excuse that he is also a member of a federal task force, authored the complaint that initiated the federal prosecution which will result in Martinez-Cruz’ eventual removal after he has been sentenced.
Today in courtroom six of San Francisco federal courthouse U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer accepted Martinez-Cruz’ guilty plea and ordered a pre-sentence report to be prepared.
The judge was told that, although three of the charges to which the defendant pleaded guilty came with a five year mandatory minimum sentence, he was ‘safety valve’ eligible and so this would not apply.
The court was also informed that, pursuant to a plea agreement, there would be a recommendation for a below-guidelines sentence.
Sentencing will take place on July 16 2025.
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