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By Bay City News.
Three Honduran citizens have been extradited to the United States to face charges for alleged drug trafficking in San Francisco, federal prosecutors said.
Jorge Alberto Viera-Chirinos, Mayer Benegas-Medina and Elmer Bonilla Matute will face federal felony charges for being involved in separate conspiracies to sell drugs in San Francisco's Tenderloin district, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement Tuesday.
Prosecutors said Viera-Chirinos was originally charged on July 29, 2019, for allegedly participating in a conspiracy to distribute drugs in the Tenderloin neighborhood.
A federal grand jury indicted Viera-Chirinos on August 8, 2019, alleging that he is one of 14 people who trafficked large quantities of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine base and cocaine in San Francisco. The indictment alleged he was a high-ranking union official accused of drug trafficking in the Tenderloin area.
On May 6, 2020, he was released on bail. However, on September 2, 2020, Viera-Chirinos fled the residence where he was required to stay while on bail, violating the terms of his release, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He fled to Honduras where he was later found.
He will now face the charges set forth in the August 2019 indictment. He made his initial appearance on Friday, and his next appearance is scheduled for this Wednesday.
Benegas-Medina was indicted by a jury in December 2020, alleging that he participated in a conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl. He was arrested on December 10, 2020, but was released on bail on December 21, 2020. The terms of his release included electronic monitoring and a curfew.
But in March 2021 he left secretly and violated the terms of his bail. He was found in Honduras and appeared in court also on Friday. His next court appearance is scheduled for March 26.
Matute, for his part, was formally charged on December 19, 2019. Based on the indictment, Matute was suspected of being a member of a drug syndicate based in San Francisco and that, between approximately 2017 and 2019, he was responsible for distribute large quantities of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine base and cocaine, as well as traffic drugs through the states of Oregon and Washington.
He appeared in court Tuesday morning. His next court appearance is scheduled for April 3.
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