SF police make 47 arrests, seize 939 grams in drug crackdown

A coordinated police sweep in the Tenderloin and South of Market ended with 47 arrests and 939 grams of narcotics seized, another high-visibility push against open-air drug dealing in the blocks City Hall has spent more than two years trying to reclaim.

San Francisco police said the April 8 operation combined a buy-bust with a Fugitive Recovery Enforcement Team sweep in Drug Market Agency Coordination Center areas. Four arrests came from the buy-bust phase, while 43 more came from warrant and drug-related enforcement. Officers recovered fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine base and heroin, seizing 114.8 grams during the buy-bust alone before taking in another 824.2 grams during the wider sweep.

The department listed six open case numbers, 260-195-51, 260-195-130, 260-195-873, 250-564-034, 260-194-756 and 260-194-621, and said the investigations remain open and active. Anyone with information was asked to call 1-415-575-4444 or text TIP411 with the keyword SFPD.

The latest tally lands inside a broader enforcement campaign launched in May 2023 under Mayor London Breed. San Francisco police say the DMACC effort has since produced more than 13,994 arrests, including 2,491 drug-dealer arrests, and more than 1,249 pounds of narcotics seized citywide, including 356 pounds of fentanyl. At DMACC’s one-year mark in May 2024, officials said the program had already led to about 3,000 arrests and roughly 200 kilos seized, underscoring how quickly the numbers have climbed.

That scale is what City Hall points to when it argues that concentrated enforcement can change street conditions in the Tenderloin and South of Market, neighborhoods where drug dealing and public consumption have been tied to daily disruption for merchants, workers and people living nearby. DMACC’s dashboard, which is updated monthly, tracks cumulative arrests and seizure weight, a sign the city is measuring progress one operation at a time rather than declaring victory after any single sweep.

The April 8 operation also fits a pattern of repeated surges. In November 2025, police said they and partner agencies made more than 70 arrests in just over a week, seized nearly 10 pounds of narcotics and recovered four firearms. That earlier effort included California Highway Patrol officers, along with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, showing how heavily San Francisco has leaned on multi-agency enforcement to keep pressure on the same street markets.

For now, the April 8 sweep adds another set of numbers to a long-running ledger. The city has shown it can make arrests and seize drugs in bulk, but the harder question is whether those one-day wins hold once the officers leave the block.