A small farming community north of Honduras’ capital city is experiencing a construction boom, largely due to the influx of cash flowing out of San Francisco. The Daily Mail reported that the City by the Bay is where many of the local men have set up a thriving drug market.
The town of El Pedernal is now littered with big mansions that have the San Francisco 49ers logo on them, thanks to the influence of the US city on the small Honduran town.
There is even a photo of what appears to be a Honduran man standing in front of a home with a design of the Golden Gate Bridge on the gate.
Though there’s no link that connects the man in the photo with criminal behavior, locals in El Pedernal have claimed that the fancy homes cropping up in the town are being paid for with money sent from San Francisco.
The report noted that some of the drug dealers in San Francisco spoke with The San Francisco Chronicle, suggesting that they make $350,000 per year, and that the city’s sanctuary status made it a desirable place to do business.
One reason why San Francisco is considered a desirable destination for drug dealers is that there’s little chance of deportation if they’re caught, with the city having a reputation of delivering light sentences to those caught.
While El Pedernal used to be a small agricultural town of around 1,600 people, it is now booming, with construction as the primary industry. Workers are making $35 per day, which is four times as much as a farmer.
The report mentioned Oscar Estrada, a Honduran author who wrote a book about drug trafficking’s effect on the country, who said that the over-the-top architectural designs of houses is a key clue that they are “Narco houses.”
“I have seen from, probably the 90s, this remittance architecture, which was very obvious and they have this very clear design and usually is related with aspirations of the immigrants to the United States,” he said.
“But this is not that. It looks more like a typical Narco house. The one you see in places like Colombia, you see the kind of architecture totally over the top of the community. That’s very clear.”
Amid the revelations of San Francisco’s ties to Honduras, one man who immigrated to the US from Afghanistan characterized San Francisco as worse than his home country. His comments came after a band of robbers stole more than $100,000 worth of merchandise from his tobacco shop.
The crime has reportedly become so bad in San Francisco that stores are now locking up candy, so as to avoid more stolen goods. Major businesses announced that they are moving their stores out of the once-great city, including Nordstrom, Whole Foods, T-Mobile, Walgreens, Old Navy, and the entire Westfield shopping center.
