Berkeley man sentenced to prison for fentanyl distribution
A 20-year-old Berkeley man was sentenced to 48 months in prison for participating in a scheme to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine in San Francisco's Tenderloin District, the U.S. Attorney's Office said on Friday.
David Ordonez pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to distribute fentanyl and distributing fentanyl and methamphetamine in the Tenderloin on multiple occasions.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Ordonez sold the drugs on three separate occasions — Feb. 9, Feb. 24 and March 9, 2022 — to an undercover police officer working with the San Francisco Police Department and the DEA. Police said all of the transactions happened in the Tenderloin, and were in violation of state stay-away orders against Ordonez.
Ordonez sold the officer 59 grams of fentanyl and 30 grams of methamphetamine for $1,200 on Feb. 24, the government said in the sentencing memo. He later sold the same officer 28 grams of fentanyl and 71 grams of methamphetamine for $1,000 on March. Ordonez sent the officer a text message the day before saying he had “good” fentanyl, according to the memo.
The government also said that when Ordonez was arrested on April 19, he ran from police with a backpack containing 1,118.8 grams of fentanyl, 98 grams of methamphetamine, and other illegal drugs.
In his plea application, Ordonez
said he conspired with another person to sell over 40 grams of fentanyl from Feb. 9 to April 19, 2022. He also admitted to selling the drugs to the undercover officer and to running from police during his arrest. The government said that physical surveillance and cellphone data indicated Ordonez and his brother, Juan Carlos Hernandez-Ordonez, often traveled together from their shared apartment in Berkeley into the Tenderloin before they were both arrested last April.
On May 3, Ordonez was indicted on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl. He was also charged with possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of a mixture and a substance containing methamphetamine, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
In addition to a sentence of 48 months in prison, Ordonez was also ordered to serve four years of supervised release. His brother, Hernandez-Ordonez, was sentenced in January to 18 months in prison and four years of supervised release afterward.