20-year-old David Ordonez of Berkeley pleaded guilty to selling 90 grams of fentanyl and 100 grams of meth to an undercover federal agent, but the larger problem was probably his backpack crammed with 1,120 grams of fentanyl.
Two Berkeley brothers pleaded guilty in federal court in late September to selling fentanyl and methamphetamine in the Tenderloin, a scheme that ended when on three occasions they sold the drugs to an undercover agent. One brother, Juan Carlos Hernandez Ordonez, was sentenced to 18 months in prison last month, which he’s now serving. And on Friday, the other brother, David Ordonez, was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the drug trafficking, according to KPIX.
The arresting agent is described by the U.S. Attorney's Office a "an undercover officer working with the DEA and the San Francisco Police Department." But that release says the brothers sold this agent fentanyl and meth on three occasions, on February 9, February 24, and March 9, 2022.
“The government argued that Ordonez sold the undercover officer around 59 grams of fentanyl and 30 grams of methamphetamine in exchange for $1,200 on February 24, 2022,” according to the U.S. Attorney. “The government also argued in its sentencing memorandum that Ordonez sold the same undercover officer around 28 grams of fentanyl and 71 grams of methamphetamine in exchange for $1,000 on March 10, 2022, after telling the undercover officer in a text message the day before the deal that Ordonez had ‘good’ fentanyl.”
Certainly that’s enough to merit federal charges. But the announcement from the U.S. Attorney's office also adds that “At his arrest in Berkeley on April 19, 2022, Ordonez ran from the police with a backpack containing around 1,118.8 grams—nearly 2.5 pounds—of fentanyl and around 98 grams of methamphetamine, along with other illegal drugs.”
Ordonez seems to have already had a track record on the Tenderloin, as the announcement adds that he was “in violation of state stay-away orders” from the neighborhood. The sentencing announcement also assesses from smartphone location data that “Ordonez made a living selling fentanyl on a regular basis at particular times of day and night in the Tenderloin.”
Image: Google Street View
