SAN FRANCISCO—On Tuesday, November 7, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office revealed that nine individuals were charged in connection to suspected drug dealing in the Tenderloin following a joint federal and local law enforcement operation on November 1.
Five suspects were arraigned on November 3, and each pled not guilty to their specific charges and allegations in San Francisco Superior Court. Bench warrants were issued for three individuals who failed to appear in court for arraignment. One individual was arraigned on November 7, and pled not guilty to all charges and allegations. The criminal complaint for one of the nine individuals charged alleges that this incident occurred while he has two open pending felony cases.
The SF District Attorney’s Office moved to detain eight of the nine individuals pending trial because of the public safety risk they pose. The court granted the motion to detain without prejudice for two people. The court will hear further arguments at the time of the preliminary hearings in those cases. Two individuals arraigned, who were released pre-arraignment by the court, were remanded and taken into custody following arraignment. Bench warrants were issued for three individuals, who had been released pre-arraignment by the court, for failure to appear. Two individuals were released by the court on electronic monitoring with a stay away order from the place where they were arrested on November 1.
From the start of the year until November 2, the SFDA’s Office has been presented with and filed the most felony narcotics cases year over year since 2018 with 851 cases presented and 739 cases filed. In the same time period, 238 felony narcotics cases have been convicted or pled guilty to another felony charge.
As of November 2, a total of 535 individuals with open bench warrants who failed to appear for narcotics sales cases were released by the court. A total 139 of these individuals in bench warrant status have more than one open case. Seven individuals have four open cases and one individual has five open cases.
A total of 316 motions have been filed by the SFDA’s Office to detain drug dealing suspects because of the extreme public safety risk they pose. Of the 316 detention motions filed, the court has granted 32 of them.
The names of the suspects in the case have not yet been disclosed to the public.
The San Francisco Police Department is still investigating the case. Anyone with details is asked to call the San Francisco Police Department Tip Line at 1-415-575-4444 or Text a Tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD.
