In brief: six months for Honduran drug dealer who went on the lam after San Francisco bust
A Honduran illegal alien who won bail after being busted selling methamphetamine and cocaine in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, only to skip court and spend ten months on the lam before being arrested again, was given a six-month sentence today at the city’s federal courthouse.
But an attorney for Jorge Mendoza Cerrato told the court that he would fight deportation after being handed over to ICE because he claims a gang in his home country wants to kill him and, if deported, he would simply move – undoubtedly illegally – to another country.
Mendoza Cerrato, 28, was found with methamphetamine and cocaine after he was seen by SFPD selling drugs near the corner of O’Farrell and Larkin Streets in November 2024.
He was released from San Francisco county jail without seeing the inside of a courtroom after a judge approved his release and he then failed to appear.
In September last year the defendant again came to the attention of law enforcement when he was arrested in Salinas. He had earlier been arrested after a girlfriend alleged he tried to strangle her.
Mendoza Cerrato entered the U.S. using a tourist visa ten years ago and did not leave. The court was told he has two U.S. citizen children who do not live in California. His brother lives in Miami.
His attorney, Angela Chuang, claimed that her client risked death at the hands of MS-13 gang members if he were to return to Honduras and that he intended to fight deportation.
“He led a law-abiding life for the vast majority of that time,” she insisted in a sentencing memorandum, “and has only recently had a few contacts with the criminal justice system.”
“Once he is in deportation proceedings he intends to make it clear that he has a well-founded fear that he will be physically harmed or killed if he were to return to his home country.”
“If there is no legal pathway for him to return [to the U.S.] he will migrate to another country for his own safety,” she added.
Prosecutor Jean Fundakowski agreed that a ‘time served plus one business day’ sentence would suffice. As a result, Mendoza Cerrato is expected to be handed over to immigration officials Tuesday.
ALSO TODAY: A Salvadoran immigrant described by investigators as a “mid-level drug distributor operating in the San Francisco Bay Area” pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking at the city’s federal courthouse.
Michael Aguilera Cabrera, 23, appeared out of custody having earlier been granted pre-trial release by U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim.
The defendant had a Department of Homeland Security work visa in his passport when arrested – the work in question being fentanyl peddling.
Today U.S. District Judge James Donato set sentencing for July 20.
Aguilera Cabrera’s bail status represents a remarkable state of affairs underscoring both the near total absence of immigration enforcement in Northern California and U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian’s half-hearted approach to drug trafficking prosecutions.
