SF Tenderloin Drug Dealer Gets 2 Years Behind Bars For Selling Heroin In School Zone

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - A judge has sentenced a convicted Tenderloin drug dealer who sold heroin near an elementary school and children's playground to more than 2 years behind bars.

Darwin Villatoro, 29, plead guilty to charges including possession of heroin with the intention so sell it in a school zone, and possession of cocaine base. On Friday, a judged sentenced him to 2 years and 4 months in prison.

The sentence was handed down a day after police arrested at least six drug dealers in the San Francisco's Tenderloin district, home to more than half of all drug sales arrests, according to authorities. Officers seized than 170 grams of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and deadly fentanyl, along with about $3000.

Police arrested Villatoro, of Honduras, three times between January 2019 and January 2020.

On each occasion, Villatoro was in possession of drugs including bundles of heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine base.

The second arrest occurred at the intersection of Golden Gate and Larkin Street, within 1000 feet of the Tenderloin Community Elementary School and the N. Helen Diller Civic Center Playground.

A federal grand jury convicted Villatoro last February. He has been in custody since March and will begin serving his sentence immediately.