A small farming community north of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, is experiencing a construction boom thanks to large inflows of cash from San Francisco, where many of the local young men have established a thriving drug market.
The town of El Pedernal is now lined with gaudy mansions emblazoned with the San Francisco 49ers logo and pays homage to the city of California’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge.
A photo seen by DailyMail.com shows a man posing outside an imposing home with an imposing metal security gate, complete with a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge incorporated into the metal work.
There’s no suggestion that the man or the property itself is linked to criminal behavior – but locals say many of the fine new homes springing up in El Pedernal are bought with ill-gotten gains brought home from the City by the Bay have been sent.
A young man poses in front of a newly built house in El Pedernal, the security fence of which includes a recreation of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. There is no suggestion that the property or any man depicted in front of it is involved in any crime, but many in the city confirmed that those who went to San Francisco were often involved in the drug trade
Some dealers who worked in the California city told that The San Francisco Chroniclewho spent 18 months researching the city, that they made $350,000 a year, and that San Francisco’s policy as a sanctuary city made it an attractive destination.
That’s because there’s little risk of deportation if caught and convicted of drug trafficking – with San Francisco also known among dealers for handing out light sentences if caught dealing.
El Pedernal used to be a sleepy agricultural town of 1,600 people: now construction is a major industry, with workers earning $35 a day – four times what a farmer earns.
A teacher in El Pedernal told the newspaper that he has quit teaching and has become a full-time metal artist, creating custom replicas of the Bay Area sports team for the new homes.
During the 12 months ending September 2022, U.S. immigration officials encountered 213,023 Hondurans at the border trying to cross illegally — about 2 percent of the country’s population of 10 million
A homeless drug user is seen in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. The city is synonymous with drug use, homelessness and related crime
Oscar Estrada, a Honduran author who wrote a book about the impact of drug trafficking on the country, said the garish design was new to the area and echoed classic Colombian “Narco Houses.”
“I’ve seen this remittance architecture from, probably the ’90s, which was very clear and they have a very clear design and mostly related to the aspirations of the immigrants to the United States,” Estrada said.
‘But this isn’t that. It looks more like a typical Narco house. The ones you see in places like Colombia, you see the kind of architecture that goes all over the top of the community. That is very clear.’
A seasoned San Francisco dealer, returning to El Pedernal for a vacation, told the Chronicle that the three-bedroom house his wife and children lived in cost him $150,000, which he had earned in five good months of selling drugs in the Tenderloin district. .
He said the scale of construction around his own house in El Pedernal was impressive.
“A little boy, 17 years old, he built this house,” the dealer said, pointing to a mansion under construction.
“You open the door – nice.”
The vast majority of Hondurans entering the United States illegally find employment in areas other than the drug trade.
During the 12 months ending September 2022, U.S. immigration officials met more than half a million people from this region at the southwestern land border, including 213,023 Hondurans, according to data published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The figure equates to about 2 percent of the country’s 10 million population.
But in San Francisco, more than 200 Honduran migrants have been charged with drug trafficking since 2022, the newspaper reported — a figure that vastly downplays the true size of the network.
A man is seen smoking drugs at the Tenderloin in San Francisco
Drug users shoot in broad daylight in San Francisco
The number does not include Honduran dealers convicted in previous cases or others who were never arrested.
The majority are from the Siria Valley, according to multiple dealers and court documents obtained by the newspaper.
Many of those involved come from the same extended families and grew up together.
An analysis by the newspaper found that of the 130 defendants who could be confirmed as Honduran, 60 showed a specific city, town or region: of those, 51 came from the Francisco Morazan region, which includes the valley, with high concentrations in the villages of El Pedernal and Orica.
Wade Shannon, who ran the federal Drug Enforcement Administration’s office in San Francisco before his recent retirement, told the paper that the Hondurans are street dealers selling narcotics from Mexico, particularly fentanyl.
The drugs are produced by the Sinaloa Cartel, formerly led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, and the upstart Jalisco New Generation Cartel: their agents then transport them to the West Coast.
A retired police officer told The Chronicle that the Hondurans have been involved in the drug trade in the Tenderloin district for 35 years, but recently stepped up to control the open-air drug markets in the famously progressive city.
Only six percent of people charged with drug trafficking in San Francisco between 2018 and 2022 have been convicted of a drug charge so far.
Sentences ranged from one day to three years, with an average of 168 days, the data shows.
A man poses in front of a smart SUV parked in front of a home in El Pedregal, where a typical resident earns $8 a day doing farm work
The paper found that the most common charges used in plea deals for drug sales are aiding and abetting and aiding and abetting, which carry an average prison sentence of 38 days.
And San Francisco’s policies meant dealers had little reason to fear deportation.
The city jail does not allow ICE to pick up undocumented migrants on release so they can be deported.
The only way most dealers get evicted is if they get arrested on federal charges or in another city.
A dealer told the paper that the policy made San Francisco the trade city of choice.
“The reason is that being in San Francisco is like being here in Honduras,” he said.
‘The law, because they don’t deport, that’s the problem. Many look for San Francisco because it is a sanctuary city. You go to prison and you get out.’