Two-year sentence for Honduran illegal caught in nonstop crime spree featuring guns, drugs and cop attack
A Honduran illegal alien found with a gun and fentanyl in San Francisco’s mid-Market district, who had previously cut off his ankle monitor and absconded, and before that had been found with another gun, and earlier had struck an SFPD officer with his car while trying to evade a drug arrest, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment this morning in federal court.
Fernando Castro-Torres was arrested in October 2024 after selling fake fentanyl to an undercover police officer, instead of any of the large quantity of actual fentanyl he was carrying at the time. When he was arrested cops also found a 9mm semi-automatic ‘ghost gun’ in his cross-body bag.
He had earlier pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and one count of being a felon in possession of ammunition.
“There are a number of things that concern me about the defendant’s criminal history,” said U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer at San Francisco federal courthouse.
“His sales of fentanyl, his violation of probation, his presence with a firearm, his cutting off his GPS monitor while being placed on probation, which was as a result of being sent to a treatment program – and then all the facts of this particular case.”
“I don’t think any reduction under twenty-four months is warranted under these circumstances,” he concluded before imposing a two year sentence.
While the ‘guideline’ sentencing range was 63-78 months, assistant U.S. attorney Eli Cohen asked the court to impose the 24-month term reflecting his office’s lenient practices. Castro-Torres’ attorney asked for a year-and-a-day.
“I want to apologize to all the families that my behavior has affected, including my own.”
Fernando Castro-Torres
“I want to apologize to all the families that my behavior has affected, including my own,” Castro-Torres told the court today through a Spanish interpreter. “I have not been the best person.”
“Whatever you decide I’m ready and willing to pay for my mistakes,” he said.
Prosecutors said that Castro-Torres had spent three years in a “near-nonstop cycle of criminal activity” and had “committed a series of serious crimes with little consequence.”
In 2022 he was given pretrial diversion in superior court after he was caught dealing fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine.
Later that year, in an attempt to evade a drug arrest, he drove his car into an SFPD officer, who was pulled onto the hood and then fell to the road – being hospitalized as a result. He served 154 days in county jail and was given two years probation.
In 2023 his unfortunate girlfriend was shot in the back. At the hospital Alameda sheriff’s deputies found him with another gun, more drugs, a ski mask, five cell phones and thousands of dollars in cash.
He pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact and served a sentence of 14 days.
A San Francisco court then revoked his probation and sent him to a treatment program on condition that he wore an ankle monitor. Within a week he cut it off and ran away.
He was later involved in a highway patrol traffic chase in San Leandro, in a stolen car, and was also arrested for drug dealing in Oregon.
Castro-Torres was told he faces deportation after completing his sentence.
“One thing that is pretty clear is that the Department of Justice and ICE are deporting these people,” noted Judge Breyer.
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