S.F.'s drug markets have transformed: More violence, new dealers and 'chaos' at night

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/drug-market-tenderloin-soma-
18579159.php

The sidewalks at Seventh and Mission streets are mostly quiet these days.
The few passersby on their way to work or to one of the area’s newly
renovated hotels stop only long enough to wait for the walk signal to
cross the street, with no restaurants, corner stores or other reasons to
linger.

It’s a remarkable transformation from just six months ago, when at least a
dozen drug dealers could be found at all hours of the day at the San
Francisco intersection, their customers folded over at the waist or
unconscious on the pavement. A 15-year-old boy dealing drugs was shot to
death at the corner in 2021, and the area was so troublesome that
employees in August were told to work remotely rather than risk going to
the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building.

But now, less than a half-mile away, the drug bazaars of last spring
reemerge each day after sunset, in concentrated pockets of the Tenderloin.
On Turk Street between Hyde and Larkin streets on a mid-December night,
dozens of black-clad dealers jockeyed for desperate buyers, some already
in the throes of withdrawal after fruitlessly searching for fentanyl over
the previous 12 hours.

One buyer, Shana Miller, was agitated as she shuffled onto Turk Street on
a recent weeknight. “How dare you ask me for a hit, JJ!” she yelled. At
the center of the block, Miller planted herself amid about 40 dealers and
dozens of users smoking or snorting their purchases, and scanned the
crowd.

Over the past month, the Chronicle, which spent 18 months reporting on the
open-air drug markets of the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods,
returned to see what had changed since the July publication of its
investigation and after a series of highly publicized police crackdowns.

Local, state and federal police have largely dismantled the city’s most
brazen daytime drug markets, clearing blighted areas that residents and
local businesses said were unsafe and dissuaded visitors. Dealers, many of
whom the Chronicle reported have fled poverty and violence in Honduras,
are no longer visible during mornings or afternoons. Police and a few
dealers said some of those Honduran dealers are now selling in other U.S.
cities. The dealers who remain are much more cautious and operate in a
more violent environment. And there are signs that new dealers are
entering the markets, the Chronicle found.

“Seventh Street was a … horror show,” said Jim Haas, a board member of the
Civic Center Community Benefit District. “But finally, you know, all the
powers that be got together, particularly the federal government, and
every time I’ve been down that way recently, it’s been clear all the way
back several blocks.”

But history shows that increased police enforcement usually fails to
completely eradicate drug markets, and that has proved true in San
Francisco. Instead, the markets have adjusted. In this case, dealers have
moved to more concentrated locations and operate primarily after the
workday ends for city street ambassadors and many police officers.

This may help explain why accidental overdose deaths in San Francisco have
not abated, surging to a record 752 by the end of November, according to a
preliminary report from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. With a
month left in the year, that figure already eclipsed the previous full-
year overdose death toll of 720 set in 2020. The addiction crisis
continues to be driven by fentanyl — a powerful synthetic opioid found in
more than 80%, or 613, of those killed by overdoses this year, according
to city officials.

A visit to the nighttime markets in mid-December found them to be
anarchic, de facto containment zones, where police are scarce, the
fentanyl is stronger than ever and violence is common.

“My biggest concern is a stray bullet,” said Robert, who lives in a low-
income housing unit overlooking Turk Street. (The Chronicle is not using
the full names of some people quoted in this story because they feared for
their safety.) Every night, he said, dozens of dealers coalesce around a
nearby playground, creating a scene that he said resembles a fight club.

Robert, who suffers from meth addiction, said he opted for an upper-level
apartment to avoid looking out his window at the “madness” and temptation
of dealers outside. It’s helped to some extent, he said, as have the Urban
Alchemy city ambassadors who chase drug dealers off the block during the
day.

“During the day it’s really clean. … You don’t see any (dealers) around,
just people working, or kids going to school, mothers.” Robert said. “But
then after they leave, it turns into this. Chaos.”

Mayor London Breed’s office is aware of the problematic night markets and
is working on a “multi-strategy effort” that includes other community
members and businesses, as well as police, said Jeff Cretan, a Breed
spokesperson. For instance, he said, late-night businesses like corner
shops tend to attract crowds, so city officials have been asking some to
consider closing at 10 p.m.

Amid the scrum of dealers and users on Turk Street, Shana Miller and a
male friend had no trouble locating a seller. Young men in black hoodies
and balaclavas repeatedly attempted to make eye contact, but Miller was
short on cash for the evening and needed to bargain.

The two were shopping for crack cocaine and a drug they referred to as
“ISO” — a street name for what experts say is more potent fentanyl.

Miller, who said she has lived on San Francisco’s streets for well over a
decade, towered over her companion, a wispy young man whose bent posture
knocked a foot off his frame.

The streets are more tense than they used to be, Miller and her friend
said. So many dealers have been arrested in recent months that many now
aren’t willing to take risks for just a few dollars. Free samples are
harder to come by, too, they said.

Within minutes, Miller spotted one of her two favorite dealers: brothers
generous with freebies whom she trusted to deliver what they advertised.

Miller and the dealer slipped behind a parked car, and Miller returned to
her friend grumbling. Ten dollars should have bought them hits of both ISO
and crack, she said, but the dealer was in a stingy mood and she was
forced to part without the latter.

Miller and her friend crouched together on the sidewalk, each pinching a
slab of foil into the shape of a tiny canoe. They dropped in a few crumbs
of a white substance and lit a flame under the foil. As the pebbles melted
into a dull yellow liquid, the pair inhaled the fumes through a pipe. The
man closed his eyes and stooped even lower.

“It’s like this weird wash over your whole body,” Miller said after her
first hit. “Like getting a hug from your grandma. It’s the greatest thing
ever. Warm and fuzzy.”

As the pair relaxed into their high, a dealer stationed steps away began
yelling into the crowd.

“Does anyone know this dude?” the dealer asked, pointing at a dazed man in
a purple jacket crouched next to a car. Nearby dealers shook their heads.

“He must be a snitch, he must be a narc,” the dealer continued as the
crowd parted. “Why’s he just staring at everybody?”

The man in the purple jacket said nothing, standing limply before the
dealer punched him in the ribs. A second dealer joined him, and the two
dealt the man strong blows to his stomach, face and head until he fell to
the ground, wailing.

The two continued kicking the man in his ribs and face until, with the
man’s cheek on the pavement and blood streaming from his face, one of them
stomped on his head.

By last spring, with overdose deaths already projected to set an annual
record, Breed, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and a few city
supervisors began announcing initiatives to increase police enforcement of
the markets.

So many plans were launched that it is difficult to credit arrests to
specific actions. Breed said this month that local and state agencies had
arrested nearly 700 people for selling drugs and 800 for using drugs since
the actions began.

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’ office has filed charges in 827 of 952
felony narcotics cases it was presented with this year, topping a previous
record set in 2018 under then-District Attorney George Gascón.

Officials generally agree that the key policing clampdowns began around
late July, with the U.S. attorney of the Northern District of California,
Ismail Ramsey, overseeing an operation dubbed “All Hands on Deck.” It
coordinated arrests from numerous agencies, including the Drug Enforcement
Administration; San Francisco Police Department; FBI; Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and Department of Homeland Security.

Federal agents significantly increased their presence in the Tenderloin,
witnessing hand-to-hand transactions and immediately arresting drug
dealers on the street, said Brian Clark, special agent in charge of the
DEA’s San Francisco Field Division.

“Usually we’re behind the scenes, doing complex conspiracy
investigations,” he said in a recent interview. “But the crisis has called
for us to do something differently.”

Progressive city leaders including Supervisor Dean Preston and the Public
Defender’s Office have blasted the increased policing efforts as a waste
of resources that does not make the city more safe and would be better
spent on addiction and health care treatment. The city’s 2022 Overdose
Prevention plan maintains that incarcerating drug users can lead to an
increase in overdoses if they are released and do drugs after losing some
of their tolerance.

Cretan said the city offers health care options and other services to
those struggling with addiction, but has had limited success compelling
people to seek treatment.

The opioid epidemic and overdose deaths have plagued cities and towns
across the nation, Cretan noted.

“What we’re dealing with in the Tenderloin, though, in addition to that,
are the real public safety challenges around that issue driven by these
open-air drug markets,” Cretan said.

In its 18-month investigation, the Chronicle found that the street-level
fentanyl market in San Francisco was almost entirely controlled by
hundreds of migrants from a small, rural area of Honduras, the Siria
Valley. Fleeing difficult conditions in their home country, the migrants
cross the U.S.-Mexico border with the aid of Mexican cartels and then sell
drugs supplied by those same criminal organizations.

“What the DEA is doing is targeting the whole spectrum of the Honduran
drug-trafficking organizations, who are primarily responsible for bringing
all the fentanyl into the area,” agent Clark said.

Ramsey’s work, meanwhile, has led to the funneling of more cases to
federal courts, where the risk of lengthy prison sentences and deportation
for undocumented immigrants is significantly higher than for those tried
in San Francisco Superior Court.

His office has also been testing a fast-track prosecution program that
settles some low-level drug cases in a matter of days as opposed to months
or years. The deals offer defendants no additional jail time but an
accelerated path to deportation. While several defendants have accepted
this alternative, a federal judge recently rejected two such plea
bargains, reasoning that they were “far too lenient.”

Since beginning their operations on July 24, Clark said, DEA agents had
made just over 100 arrests by early December, with 59 people being charged
federally.

The sweeps have spurred a significant shake-up in the traffickers’
operations, local and federal police sources said.

In addition to the day-to-night adjustment, dealers are more often running
from police and using scooters or drivers to change locations during
shifts. One Tenderloin officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity
said the team recently went three days without locating a single dealer,
and not for lack of trying.

“Dealer- and user-wise, what we’re seeing now is that they’re not
flaunting it in the officers’ faces,” said Dave Lee, a sergeant with the
SFPD’s narcotics unit.

Clark said federal investigations also have found that many Honduran drug
traffickers are eschewing San Francisco in favor of other western U.S.
cities.

“As the pressure has been (increasing) here locally, we have seen them go
toward Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland, Seattle — other areas that have
kind of similar open-air drug markets and are a little more tolerant to
drug trafficking,” he said.

With the city’s crackdowns largely focused on Honduran trafficking
organizations, dealers and users said other criminal groups are starting
to see a small, if fraught, opening in the market.

On an afternoon in late November, a 41-year-old fentanyl dealer named
Joseph looked around nervously after selling a packet to a woman smoking a
few feet away on Leavenworth Street.

Joseph said the crackdowns have made it “hell” to sell during the day and
that dealers and users are now forced to slip into alleyways to make a
quick sale. Before, it was typically safe enough to crouch behind a parked
car or dip into a nearby tent.

“The one good thing is they really cracked down on the Hondos,” he said,
referring to the street name for Honduran drug dealers. “Makes it easier
for the rest of us.”

Joseph’s customer, Kiki, lit her hit of fentanyl along with a small rock
of crack cocaine to counter the sedative effects. “I’m always afraid of
getting the combination or the load wrong and overdosing,” she said. “And
now that it’s harder to get my dope, I’m even more afraid.

“You can’t always get your usual dealer. It’s so tight now, with so many
cops, that you have to just get what you can get, and you never know when
that combo will be a killer.”

Ashley Miskin, 25, looked around Eddy Street pensively as she inhaled a
hit of fentanyl from an emptied water bong. She had come out from Idaho
four years ago and found the drug scene in San Francisco easy and
welcoming. But not anymore.

“The cops are everywhere. They’ve been arresting people who are smoking
outside, and that didn’t used to happen,” she said. “And buying the stuff
is harder, too. I hardly ever see the Hondos now, so people have to find
new guys to buy from. And you never really know what you’re getting.”

One longtime San Francisco drug dealer from Honduras said he has
significantly cut back his hours of selling in the Tenderloin for fear of
arrest or deportation.

The dealer, a man in his 30s, said he’s working with his defense attorney
to scrub or reduce previous drug sale convictions from his record through
the city’s Clean Slate program.

Successfully completing the program would greatly improve his odds of
gaining U.S. citizenship, he said, while a new arrest could derail that
prospect.

Still, the dealer said he doubted the latest wave of arrests and
deportations would ultimately make much of a dent in the Honduran dealers’
presence in San Francisco. Mexican cartels have recently been charging
about $20,000 to help immigrants cross the U.S. border, he said, a fee
easily met by successful dealers.

Those who have been deported so far may want to wait until the new year to
return, though, he said, so they can spend time with their families for
the holidays.

“Maybe next month,” he said.

Despite the surge of arrests since July, there’s no evidence that the
stream of fentanyl and other drugs into the Bay Area has abated. DEA
seizures of powder fentanyl increased by 47% since last year, and by 42%
for fentanyl pills, Clark said.

These hauls have cast major doubts on reports from earlier this year that
Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel was going to stop distributing fentanyl. The
Sinaloa, along with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CGNJ, are the
leading manufacturers and distributors of the U.S.’s illicit fentanyl, the
18-month Chronicle investigation found.

While federal officials kept a close eye on those reports, “We have not
seen that change,” Clark said.

The market has simultaneously seen a rise in “clean fentanyl,” a synthetic
opiate up to twice as potent as its predecessor.

In 2020, the average purity level of powder or rock fentanyl seized in
California was 14.9%, a figure that steadily rose each year after to an
average purity level of 28.83%, said Jill Raezer, director for the DEA’s
western laboratory.

“It’s a trend that’s obviously trending up,” Raezer said. “The max purity
that we’ve seen in California is 89%.”

It’s this “clean fentanyl” that drug users and dealers sometimes refer to
as “ISO.”

This is a dangerous time for stronger fentanyl to be on the market, Clark
said.

“Because we’ve changed up how they’ve always had 24/7 open access to an
open-air drug market, now you have individuals that are searching for
their dealer during the day and can’t find them. So when they get it at
night, they could be using more,” Clark said.

He added, “It may get worse before it gets better.”

On a recent weekday, two medical examiner’s office vans were parked in
front of the Canon Kip Senior Center, a low-income housing complex near
the corner of Natoma and Eighth streets.

Three medical examiner workers filed into the center’s elevator and
emerged minutes later rolling a stretcher. They wheeled the city’s latest
suspected overdose victim, an older man covered by a white sheet, past the
lobby’s Christmas tree before loading him into the van.

Hours later, a few blocks away, the beating victim in the purple jacket
lay bleeding and motionless on the sidewalk as Shana Miller, her friend
and a few other users backed away to the end of the block. Some debated
whether to call an ambulance. Others continued to smoke as the man’s
assailants and dozens of other dealers returned to their posts.

Within minutes, the man in the purple jacket stood up and began walking
away, cursing at a passerby who asked whether he was OK.

Miller and her friend moved to a quieter block to enjoy the rest of their
high in peace. It was a good batch, Miller said, praising the consistency
of her favorite dealer.

“That’s why I wanted to get this shit,” she said. “Because it should feel
like this.”

Reach Megan Cassidy: megan....@sfchronicle.com. Reach Gabrielle Lurie:
glu...@sfchronicle.com. Reach Kevin Fagan: kfa...@sfchronicle.com



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