SAN FRANCISCO, CA – A 22-year-old mother on trial here in San Francisco County Superior Court for charges relating to the alleged unlawful possession and sale of fentanyl testified she was given no other choice by a drug cartel.
The accused was charged with a Fugitive Felony Warrant and five counts of Transportation, Sale, and Giving Away of Controlled Substances.
The accused is from Honduras, and consistently maintains her charges were the result of coercion and intimidation by members of the Honduran cartel, who were often operating in San Francisco or Oakland.
The accused, under cross-examination in the court of Judge Eric R. Fleming, testified she was forced to transport and sell fentanyl up and down the states of both California and Oregon for approximately four hours a day, every day for at least eight months.
Assistant District Attorney Brittney Delgado asked the accused if she understood what the colors of the fentanyl that she was allegedly distributing meant.
According to testimony from an officer, the colors of fentanyl indicate the purity levels of the fentanyl, which would contribute to the cost.
However, the accused maintained that “it is all the same, just different colors” and that she knew little about what she was given to sell, indicating she was not knowledgeable enough about the material to distribute without very specific directions.
Much of the ADA’s cross-examination was repeated, asking many of the same prior questions, including how often the accused was around her sister’s friend, why she chose a specific sister to go with her to get her Honduran passport, or how the accused got possession of her car.
ADA Delgado also queried if the accused “would consider a car worth over $20,000, sold for $100, is more of a gift.”
Deputy Public Defender Nuha Abusamra objected to the relevance of ADA Delgado’s questions repeatedly, but the visiting judge very rarely granted them, extending the cross-examination.
“they (the cartel) kept on making me do it” – The accused
When it was mentioned that the accused continued to sell fentanyl on a daily basis after her first arrest, the accused stated, “they (the cartel) kept on making me do it.”
ADA Delgado then noted the accused was pulled over by the police when driving multiple times and questioned why she did not mention being forced to sell drugs to the authorities, to which the accused told the court she was “afraid.”
The case continues the week of April 14.
