How many times have you watched or read a story about countries in Central and South America struggling with cartel violence, gang-controlled neighborhoods, and drug traffickers operating with zero regard? A lot, countless even.

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Of course, most Americans can’t imagine seeing this type of lawlessness happen here at home.

Never in the US, right?

Well, never say never.

Because according to a new investigation from Christopher Rufo, that’s exactly what’s happening in parts of San Francisco, where foreign drug gangs from Honduras have taken control of entire parts of the city and turned one of America’s most famous cities into an open-air drug bazar.

And the scariest part is that this didn’t happen overnight.

So, why did it happen? Well, for starters, because leftwing politicians made a series of very deliberate choices, embraced soft-on-crime policies, and looked the other way while the problem grew bigger and bigger.

Christopher Rufo recently revealed what he found.

EXCLUSIVE: Honduran drug gangs have taken over the streets of San Francisco. We spent three nights documenting “the Hondos,” who have cornered the market for fentanyl and meth—and who will slash you with a machete if you oppose them.

That’s a terrifying discovery.

But Rufo’s investigative reporting reveals that this isn’t just about drugs and foreign gangs. This is more about what happens when left-wing governments surrender control of their streets to criminals, both foreign and domestic.

His story starts with a scene that sounds like something out of a scary movie.

City Journal:

It’s 3 a.m. in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, and an all-night, drug-fueled party has been raging for hours. The sidewalks are littered with trash and human feces. Addicts huddle in the alleys, inhaling fentanyl fumes through plastic straws; others are slumped over, barely conscious. Makeshift homeless encampments line block after block.

Dealers are everywhere. On the street corners, groups of men dressed in dark hoodies and face masks sell drugs. These are the “Hondos,” migrants from Honduras who have taken over the San Francisco drug trade. Night after night, they turn the Tenderloin into a lucrative, open-air drug market.

For this City Journal investigation, we spent three days and nights in the Tenderloin, talking to addicts, journalists, cops, and the dealers themselves. We discovered that the city’s progressive policies have allowed foreign drug gangs to take over an entire neighborhood in downtown San Francisco, poisoning the down-and-out and bringing Third World conditions to one of America’s wealthiest cities.

In the Tenderloin, the Hondos rule.

Imagine showing that paragraph to someone twenty years ago and telling them it was downtown San Francisco.

They’d never believe you.

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But thanks to soft-on-crime Dems, this is now the reality in the City by the Bay.

The gang presence is real. Local residents say they’ve witnessed all of it, violence included, firsthand.

City Journal:

In 2023, Smith said that he saw a group of Hondos selling drugs in front of a school. He approached them and told them they couldn’t sell there. In response, Smith said, he was jumped by three men. During the ensuing brawl, he was twice hit with a machete—once on the top of his head, and once on his right hand and wrist.

“After it was over, everybody stopped, and that’s when I start seeing the blood coming down my face,” Smith said. “I had a split head.”

That same year, Smith says he saw a “Hondo” hack another man to death with a machete. “I also seen the Hondurans hack another individual with a machete until they killed him,” Smith said. “And you know what? The same Honduran I seen hack him with that machete that killed the guy . . . he’s still, right now, probably going to be on the same corner tonight.”

Yep, just as we’ve been saying. Criminals no longer fear authority or consequences in leftwing cities.

Rufo’s team also revealed how out-in-the-open these drug kingpins are.

City Journal:

Soon after, a San Francisco police cruiser pulled up to the corner of 6th Street and Market. An officer parked the cruiser near a bus stop and flipped on its red and blue lights. Almost immediately, the dealers began to disperse, walking away down the sidewalk. After a few minutes, the officer turned off the lights and drove off, having never stepped out of the vehicle. Seconds later, the dealers turned around and set up shop at the corner again.

The dealers know how the game is played. The police also know the game. Sadly, everyone understands the routine.

But most importantly, Rufo says the deeper problem is the left-wing policies that allowed these bad guys to flourish in the first place.

City Journal:

In response to a public records request, the San Francisco Police Department provided City Journal with a copy of its policy on immigration enforcement. The document makes clear that officers are not allowed to “inquire into an individual’s immigration status” and cannot ask anyone to produce documents proving their status. Officers are barred, in many cases, from “assist[ing] in the enforcement of federal immigration laws” or honoring ICE detainer requests. In addition, illegal migrants prosecuted for drug dealing in California courts have been repeatedly released back onto San Francisco’s streets.

JJ Smith says he often speaks with city police officers who tell him these policies have demoralized the department: “That’s messing up the morale within the police department. They constantly arresting the same person over and over for the same thing . . . . They turn around and see that person right back out here doing the same thing . . . . It’s like there’s no accountability.”

This story should make every American’s blood run cold.

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Because when governments refuse to enforce laws and politicians put ideology over safety, and when criminals figure out there are consequences for their actions, the result is this, and what’s happening in San Fran can spread anywhere.

We encourage you to read Mr. Rufo’s entire piece

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