San Francisco sues to shut Tenderloin corner store accused of meth sales

A Tenderloin corner store on Eddy Street is now at the center of San Francisco’s latest attempt to use civil court to shut down a business officials say operated as a drug market in plain sight. City Attorney David Chiu filed suit May 6 against Corner Store at 401 Eddy Street, seeking a one-year closure and damages under California’s Unfair Competition Law and public-nuisance statutes.

The complaint names Discount MarKeet 2 Inc., Abdulrahman Almehdhar, Mustafa Mehdar Almehdhar, The Allen Hotel, LLC and Karen Trinh. City officials say the owners have leased the commercial space since February 2023, while the broader property was leased to the corner-store operators around April 2023.

San Francisco police responded to 12 incidents at or around the store between March 2023 and November 2025, including theft, vandalism, physical altercations and arrests. In April 2024, the Department of Public Health sent in an undercover buyer who purchased an illegal flavored tobacco vape that lacked required FDA premarket approval, leading to a Notice of Violation. The city says complaints continued after that enforcement step.

The most serious action came in November 2025, when investigators from the Police Department, Department of Public Health and California Department of Tax and Fee Administration allegedly seized 48.1 grams of methamphetamine, nearly 5 pounds of cannabis, a ghost gun, illegal tobacco products, a digital scale, small plastic baggies used for drugs and glass pipes used to smoke meth and cocaine. Chiu said the store did not just attract drug activity but, in his words, became the drug dealer. Police Chief Derrick Lew said the Police Department will keep enforcing the law and making arrests. Supervisor Bilal Mahmood said the city needed to act to protect families, seniors and small businesses in the neighborhood.

The case fits into a broader crackdown on Tenderloin storefronts that city leaders say have masked criminal activity behind the front of a convenience store. Chiu sued SF Discount Market at 238 Leavenworth Street in October 2024 over an alleged illegal gambling den and fencing operation, then announced additional lawsuits in April 2025 against four Tenderloin stores tied to gambling and related criminal activity.

The city has also leaned on a nighttime safety ordinance, passed in July 2024 as a two-year pilot, that bars certain retail stores in high-drug areas from operating between midnight and 5 a.m. The policy was developed with Tenderloin residents as part of an effort to disrupt open-air drug markets. The enforcement push comes as San Francisco recorded 635 unintentional overdose deaths in 2024 and 621 preliminary overdose deaths in 2025. The Tenderloin Community Action Plan, released in June 2025, says the neighborhood should be shaped by resident-led priorities and includes an initial $4 million city investment.