Just hours after staving off what was to be President Donald Trump’s latest immigration enforcement surge in a major blue city, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie took to the national stage and announced that he would, in fact, “welcome” some federal assistance — but of a different kind.
San Francisco, CA
S.F. federal drug cases plummeted under Trump administration, data shows
Narcotics police officers arrest a drug dealer on Eddy Street during a drug bust in San Francisco on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023. Federal prosecutions of suspected drug dealers in San Francisco dropped under the Trump administration, data shows, an puzzling juxtaposition with the administration’s tough talk about crime in the city.
The planned militarized raids would harm the city and stifle its recovery, Lurie said in an Oct. 23 press conference, relaying what he told Trump the previous evening. But Lurie also explicitly encouraged the continuation of city partnerships with agencies including FBI, DEA, ATF and U.S. Attorney’s Office, he said, “to get drugs and drug dealers off the streets.”
Trump, who described San Francisco as a “mess” days earlier, said in a Truth Social post that Lurie had helped convince him to call off the troops, but believed the mayor was making a mistake.
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“I told him … we can do it much faster, and remove the criminals that the law does not permit him to remove,” the post said.
A Chronicle analysis of federal prosecution data, however, shows that since Trump took office, federal officials have significantly dialed back an initiative that targeted some of San Francisco’s most high-priority criminal offenders and fast-tracked the deportations of those convicted.
Federal drug cases filed in San Francisco dropped by an average of more than 50% per month in 2025 compared to recent years; the result of a slowdown of the federal-local partnership Lurie described in his remarks without mentioning by name.
That initiative was an operation forged under the Biden administration dubbed “All Hands on Deck.” The program directed the power of U.S. government against low-level dealers in San Francisco, where penalties for drug crimes are much stiffer in federal court compared to state court.
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All Hands on Deck was among a wave of 2023 crackdowns that took aim at drug hotbeds in the Tenderloin and SoMa neighborhoods, where users and dealers often congregated by the dozens.
Crucial to the initiative was lowering the bar for the types of drug crimes that would be handled by San Francisco’s federal prosecutors, who had traditionally pursued cases against major players within the drug supply chain.
Federal prosecutors in San Francisco filed an average of seven drug-dealing cases a month so far in 2025; plummeting from the average 15 monthly cases filed between August 2023 — when All Hands on Deck was launched — and December 2024.
The San Francisco figures are a stark example of a broader trend. A recent Reuters investigation found that the rate of federal drug charges filed this year was lower than it had been in decades; a downturn that comes after the Trump administration diverted thousands of federal agents who investigate crimes to instead focus on civil immigration roundups.
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In San Francisco, this included agents with the DEA, FBI, ATF who had been working with local police on drug busts, according to federal law-enforcement sources familiar with the operations.
The Chronicle reached out to the local branches of FBI, ATF and DEA for comment on this story. Spokespeople for the FBI and DEA did not respond to questions about their agents’ reported shift to immigration enforcement, both citing the government shutdown. An automatic response from ATF stated that the agency’s spokesperson had been furloughed, also due to the shutdown.
With their attention directed at immigration enforcement, federal agents have privately feared that hard-won gains in cleaning up San Francisco streets will begin to backslide.
“There were huge discussions going, ‘hey, we need to focus on the threat, and not going out there chasing people for immigration enforcement operations,” said one federal law-enforcement official.
The Chronicle spoke to multiple current and federal officials on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly,in accordance with the Chronicle’s policies.
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Michelle Lo, a spokesperson for the U.S. District Attorney’s Office of Northern California, said the office wasn’t able to comment on the charging data reviewed by the Chronicle due to staffing shortages related to the federal government shutdown.
Lo said the office remained committed to the All Hands on Deck operation, which was introduced by San Francisco’s former top federal prosecutor, Ismail Ramsey. Trump fired Ramsey in February, and in May appointed Craig Missakian as his successor.
“Our work through this initiative has driven visible, positive changes,” Lo said in an emailed statement. “The partnership between federal and local law enforcement remains strong and a priority for this Office.”
When asked for comment from Lurie, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office directed the Chronicle to the mayor’s Oct. 23 remarks.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, who has made drug cases one of her office’s top priorities, said the assistance by federal prosecutors provides a “critical deterrent” to drug dealing.
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“If a person goes to trial in federal court, they risk incarceration because the Federal bench takes this crime seriously,” a spokesperson for Jenkins’ office wrote in an emailed statement. “In contrast, in San Francisco state court … many judges do not treat drug dealing as a serious crime and the drug dealers therefore do not fear any significant consequence.”
Jenkins has met with Missakian once, on July 7, where they discussed the All Hands on Deck Partnership, the spokesperson said. No changes to the partnership were discussed.
San Francisco has long posted low rates of violent crimes, and in recent years all categories of crime have been falling to historically low numbers. But the scourge of fentanyl and the pandemic-era boom in the city’s open-air drug markets elevated what were traditionally treated as low-level street dealing offenses to one of the city’s most urgent priorities.
The operation established a partnership between local law enforcement and federal agencies including the FBI, DEA, ATF, aimed at maximizing the arrests of drug dealers and swiftly prosecuting them.
Previously, street-dealing suspects were mostly prosecuted in San Francisco courts, where the risk of lengthy prison sentences and deportation for undocumented immigrants is much lower than in federal court.
In a late 2023 interview, Ramsey said the operation was designed to address the devastation of fentanyl, and the unique challenges of San Francisco’s drug trafficking enterprise, which had evolved away from a traditional hierarchy.
“We have basically a decentralized system of individual dealers who are acting as independent contractors,” Ramsey said at the time. (They’re) “being supplied their drugs on a regular basis, and then they’re commuting to San Francisco to deal drugs and return to their suppliers and do it all over again.”
In San Francisco, where a large portion of those arrested in recent years for drug sales have been undocumented immigrants from Honduras, a federal conviction for drug dealing means near-certain removal from the U.S.
Deportation is a much rarer outcome of a conviction in San Francisco courts, where sanctuary policies prevent city officials from working with federal agents on immigration actions.
All Hands on Deck also fast-tracked prosecutions by offering low-level offenders plea deals that included no additional jail time, but three years of probation and stay-away orders from the Tenderloin. Undocumented immigrants who took this deal were immediately turned over to ICE for deportation proceedings.
Bay Area High School baseball fans are treated to a rare opportunity Saturday (April 18) with three games at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, including the famed Bruce-Mahoney clash between West Catholic Athletic League rivals St. Ignatius and Sacred Heart Cathedral.
The first pitch of the 20th annual Dante Benedetti Baseball Classic starts at 11 a.m. and pits two more San Francisco private schools as University (9-7), winners of four straight, taking on Riordan (5-11).
That will be followed by the Bruce-Mahoney game at 2:30 between St. Ignatius (12-5, 4-2 WCAL) and the Irish (7-10, 1-5) and finished off with a North Coast Section clash between North Bay’s Marin Catholic (9-7) against Acalanes (7-6-1).
The Benedetti Classic, founded by Dante’s Boys Foundation board member Tom Lounibos and Giants president Larry Baer, benefits the DBF which honors the spirit of Benedetti who for nearly 40 years owned San Francisco’s Mr. Baseball nickname for his kindness and generosity to baseball-playing youth in the area.
Among their philanthropic efforts are glove and baseball equipment drives, field renovations and contributions to scholarships and sponsorships.
After starting the season 0-4 — three of those losses were by one run — University, under head coach Andrew Suvunnachuen, has found its way, winning the last four, all in Bay Counties League play, by a combined 51-6 count over Lick-Wilmerding (16-1 and 11-3) and San Domenico (13-2 and 11-0).
Senior catcher and pitcher Jett Messenger leads the way with a .447 average, while getting on base at a .638 rate. He also leads the team with 20 stolen bases. Junior third baseman Tate Gebhart is hitting .419, while Leo Felder and Behbart share the RBI lead with 15 each.
Junior Matthew Foley is 3-2 on the mound with a 2.38 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 17.2 innings.
Riordan, under second-year head coach Craig Sargent, was 5-5 in nonleague games but lost six straight in the rugged WCAL, losing two tough games this week to Mitty (3-2 and 7-4). Junior third baseman and pitcher Santiono Williams leads the team in batting average (.371), on-base percentage (.488) and stolen bases (nine). He’s also been the team’s top pitcher at 4-2 with a 2.84 ERA.
The teams have split two previous games in their history, with Riordan winning 2-0 in 2023 and University prevailing 5-0 in 2021.
St. Ignatius, led by ninth-year head coach Brian Pollzzie, has already secured the Bruce-Mahoney trophy with four straight wins — one each in football, girls volleyball, boys basketball and girls basketball — but this rivalry is always spirited.
The Wildcats, who are ranked fourth in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Chronicle, are coming off a tough 3-0 home loss to No. 2 St. Francis on Friday after beating the host Lancers 10-6 on Tuesday.
The team is led by Stanford-bound Archer Horn, who is hitting .486 with four home runs and a .604 on-base percentage. The shortstop and pitcher also has not allowed an earned run in three pitching appearances while registering one save.
Pitching is a team’s strength with a 2.59 ERA, led by a brigade of strong arms including Leo Rhein (2-0, 2.38), Tycco Giometti (2-1, 2.62), Charlie Stecher 1-1, 0.72) and Chase Gordon (1-0, 2.80). The team is missing standout Finn Demuth, out of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Sacred Heart Cathedral, led by fourth-year head coach Gregg Franceschi, has scored 60 runs on the season and given up 61. The Irish are coming off two losses to eighth-ranked Valley Christian (5-2 and 10-1).
They are led offensively by junior outfielder Brody O’Sullivan (.381) and senior infielder Jacob Vines (.378). Johnny Nepomuceno and Max Nylander are other run-producers. Zach Stallworth (37 strikeouts, 29.2 innings) and Cooper Rogers Lewis (0.25 ERA) have been the team’s top pitchers.
The series has been remarkably close since 2005 with Sacred Heart Cathedral holding a 27-20 edge, though St. Ignatius won both games last season (5-0 and 6-3) after the Irish won 9-7 and 1-0 in 2024.
Marin Catholic hopes to get back to winning after starting the season 9-1, but have since lost six straight, four in Marin County Athletic League play, including 4-2 to Novato on Thursday. Senior outfield Luke Martin is the team’s leading hitter at .478 while senior infielder and pitcher Cooper Mitchell is at .455. Senior infielder Walker Untermann leads the team with 15 RBIs.
Acalanes is at the other end of the spectrum, winners of five of six after a 2-5-1 start. Junior infielder Tyler Winkles, also a highly recruited quarterback in football, leads the team with a .383 average and nine stolen bases. Riley Gates (2-3, 2.49 ERA, 30 strikeouts) is the team’s top pitcher.
The teams have played three times, all since 2022, with Marin Catholic owning a 2-1 lead. Acalanes won last year’s game 8-7.
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Chinatown fatal crash victim ID’d, safety measures proposed
The victim killed in Friday’s Chinatown crash was identified Monday by the medical examiner as Cutberto Zamora-Martinez, 49, of San Joaquin County. At a meeting on Monday, city officials said the cause of the crash is still under investigation.
SAN FRANCISCO – A 76-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and speeding following a crash in San Francisco’s Chinatown that killed a man working in the area.
Zhuo Ming Lu, 76, is accused in the March 27 crash that left 49-year-old Cutberto Zamora-Martinez, of San Joaquin County, dead.
Suspect was trying to park
What we know:
Authorities said Lu was attempting to park near Grant Avenue and Jackson Street when his vehicle jumped the sidewalk and crashed into the landmark New Lung Ting Café, also known as the Pork Chop House. The vehicle also struck two pedestrians, including Zamora-Martinez.
Zamora-Martinez died from his injuries.
He had been working in the area, according to a GoFundMe page. A San Francisco Police Department source close to the investigation told KTVU the victims were carpet installers arriving for work.
The fundraising page described Zamora-Martinez as a husband and father who was the sole provider for his family and “a humble man who wanted the best for his family.”
Before his arrest, Lu had been cooperating with investigators. Authorities have not confirmed what caused the crash.
Some residents questioned whether the driver’s age or a possible confusion between the brake and gas pedals may have been factors.
“Maybe if people hit a certain age, you got to get retested for your driver’s license is something I was thinking about,” said Keith Hong, who works next door to the crash site.
Another case involving an elderly driver
Big picture view:
In an unrelated case, Mary Fong Lau, 80, was sentenced to probation after killing a family of four, two parents and their young children. in March 2024. Authorities said Lau struck the victims as they waited at a Muni stop on their way to the zoo.
Lau pleaded no contest to four felony counts of vehicular manslaughter, and a judge accepted the plea. A Superior Court judge cited her age, remorse and lack of criminal history in the sentencing decision.
She was placed on probation for two years, banned from driving for three years and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service.
The Source: San Francisco Police Department, prior reporting
San Francisco first came to know chefs Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz through their pop-up Istanbul Modern, and later through their breakthrough Presidio restaurant Dalida. The duo’s success is grounded in their take on Eastern Mediterranean food, which they made a conscious decision to champion 10 years ago.
Fast-forward to 2026, and now Laura is taking on a personal project of her own, with Sayat by her side, placing foods from Mexico’s Guerrero and Sinaloa center stage at Maria Isabel. It’s a refreshing menu that combines both Mexican and local ingredients, through the lens of the Ozyilmazes cooking backgrounds.
Reservations are released on OpenTable 30 days in advance, but Laura confirmed that they do take walk-ins depending on space. Smaller parties or solo diners might have better luck sliding in, thanks to the counter in the brighter, “Maria” portion of the restaurant.
The cocktails from consulting bar director Evan Williams are always worth a glimpse, whether at Dalida or at Maria Isabel. They’re well-balanced and have incredible depth and technique behind them. That being said, the team sourced wines from woman-led wine brands such as LOTIS Wines and Amevive Wine, if you’re looking to explore past the usual selections you’ll see elsewhere.
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