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San Francisco officials announced last Thursday that the city has uncovered numerous secret drug and gambling dens masquerading as convenience stores, all located in a notorious downtown neighborhood long associated with illicit activity and homelessness.
At least nine such dens have been shut down or sued over the past 18 months in the Tenderloin, City Attorney David Chiu said.
He added that the stores engaged in a range of illegal activities, including gambling operations, selling illegal drugs, possessing firearms, trafficking in stolen goods, and violating the city’s nighttime safety ordinance, which prohibits shops from operating during late hours to deter nighttime criminal activity.
“These convenience stores were magnets for drug activity, and, in some cases, the stores were selling illegal drugs themselves,” City Attorney Chiu said.
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A person experiencing homelessness sleeps on the sidewalk in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, April, 14, 2022. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
According to the announcement, the stores allegedly housed illegal gambling operations, with police seizing numerous slot machines, up to 11 from a single location, along with money-counting machines. Law enforcement reportedly seized significant amounts of cash, including more than $17,000 from one store.
In one search, officers found methamphetamine hidden beneath a display shelf. Chiu said other seizures uncovered cannabis, vape cartridges, and hundreds of glass pipes and Brillo pads, items commonly used to smoke methamphetamine and crack cocaine.
Significant weaponry was also found on the premises, including a firearm with a loaded magazine, a high-capacity Glock magazine, two additional pistol magazines, and other ammunition.
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Homeless people consume illegal drugs in an encampment along Willow St. in the Tenderloin district of downtown on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022 in San Francisco, CA. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Authorities said the convenience stores were used to fence stolen goods. Officers reportedly seized merchandise still bearing original price tags from major retailers such as Walgreens, Sephora, CVS and Target. Specific contraband included out-of-state cigarettes and 17 stolen iPhones displayed for sale.
Chiu touted the Nighttime Safety Ordinance, a legislative measure passed in 2024 as a two-year pilot program aimed at disrupting illegal activity. He said he is now seeking to expand the curfews to further combat crime in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, a densely populated area known for its nightlife, tech offices and a history of crime and homelessness.
At the intersection of Leavenworth and Golden Gate Streets people all walk to work and hang out in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, California Wednesday January 26, 2022. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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“Most businesses contribute positively to our neighborhoods, but a handful of late-night retail establishments, like the ones we have shut down, attract significant criminal activity,” he said. “The nighttime safety ordinance has been helpful in putting these stores on our radar and giving us additional tools to shut down problematic businesses. “
Supervisor Matt Dorsey said he hopes the neighborhoods will eventually become “a less welcoming environment for public drug use, drug dealing, and all the drug-driven lawlessness, including illegal fencing operations that fuel rampant drug use.”