SAN FRANCISCO—The Northern District of California announced on September 30 charges against an alleged drug dealer in Tenderloin for selling fentanyl that caused the death from overdose of one victim, and hospitalization of another.

The United States Attorney’s Office announced that the complaint submitted on May 18 says that Celin David Doblado-Canaca, 38, sold fentanyl packaged as cocaine near the corner of Golden Gate Avenue and Hyde Streets in Tenderloin district. The lawsuit was submitted by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. The drugs were taken to San Bruno, and later that night, the two victims ingested it as they believed it was cocaine. One of the victims died due to overdose, and the other was hospitalized. They were found by their family members on the early morning of May 19.

The suspect, Doblado-Canaca, was arrested on August 21, after the police investigation identified him as the source who offered the fentanyl which killed one of the victims. When Doblado-Canaca entered a liquor shop at the corner of Hyde and Turk Streets, police traced him and found him possessing “more than a dozen small baggies of substances alleged to be fentanyl and heroin.”

Doblado-Canaca appeared for the first time in San Francisco federal court on August 25, and he is currently in custody pending further proceedings. On September 30, the complaint became in public.

U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson explained “Fentanyl is pouring into our community from China and Mexico. Because it is incredibly powerful in even the smallest doses, fentanyl is being mixed with other drugs and marketed as other drugs.” He added that most victims who were killed by fentanyl did not know they had been given the substance.

Anderson also warned that Tenderloin is “home to an open-air drug market that is spreading death throughout the Bay Area.” Open air drug dealing occurring in that area is not only a problem for Tenderloin, as it spreads easily to neighborhoods across San Francisco, including Oakland, San Mateo, Sonoma, and Marin County.