86 people arrested in San Francisco open-air drug market raid as city cracks down on crime

A multi-agency law enforcement operation targeting a notorious San Francisco drug den resulted in more than 80 arrests overnight Wednesday. San Francisco police said the large-scale raid at Jefferson Square Park comes as a part of the city's new effort to combat open-air drug markets.

Roughly three dozen suspects who were wanted by law enforcement were among the 86 people taken into custody, according to San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott, who said the raids would continue.

On February 26 around 10:30 pm, authorities surrounded Jefferson Square Park to disrupt the illicit drug trade. After nearly three hours of arrests, officers, sheriff's deputies, and DEA agents called it a morning. Of the 86 people shackled, roughly 60 of them were cited and released. The rest were boarded onto transport vans and booked into county jail, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

"It was a massive undertaking," said Chief Scott, per KTVU. "So, it's not going to be something you see every single day. But, you will see this more often, and we're going to use this as a strategy to deal with this displacement that's haunted us."

The individuals who were lodged behind bars either had outstanding warrants for previous felonies or were in possession of a large quantity of narcotics, according to SF Supervisor Stephen Sherill, whose district borders the park.

Jefferson Square Park, which is located in the Western Addition neighborhood, became a hotbed zone for drug trafficking after previous enforcement operations in the Tenderloin and SoMa pushed the illicit drug trade to a new location. Over the past several years, residents and business owners have complained about the city's open-air drug markets, which brought an increase in crime to the Bay Area and resulted in a mass exodus of businesses.

The next step, according to District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, is to hold the arrested individuals accountable. "If it's incarceration that they need, then that will be the path that we set the course on," she said.
 

San Francisco's newly-elected mayor, Daniel Lurie, who ran on tackling crime and drug markets to increase public safety, delivered a message to the community at the conclusion of the operation, saying, "If you are selling drugs in this city we are coming after you."

This week's operation comes after SF Supervisor Matt Dorsey issued a demand in January, ordering authorities to carry out large-scale arrests for those involved in open-air drug markets. He also ordered drug users to be placed in involuntary treatment and detox centers.