Fentanyl Traffickers Released Without Bail and Skip Town

Much attention has been given to the dramatic spike in crime in large California cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles and the focus is often on the pro-criminal policies of local politicians and progressive district attorneys.  But crime in rural California has also increased, even though local political and law enforcement leaders often oppose soft-on-crime policies.  As reported by Fox News,  the CHP pulled over a suspicious vehicle in rural Tulare County on June 24, and found 150,000 Fentanyl pills and two kilos of cocaine.  The two men in the vehicle, both from Washington state, were arrested and charged with crimes which carry a prison sentence of up to fourteen years upon conviction.   Within twenty-four hours a county judge had released the traffickers without bail and instructed them to show up for a July 21st hearing.   Is anybody surprised that they left town?

Under current California law, so-called nonviolent offenders including drug traffickers are presumed to be eligible for release without bail.  In this case, the Tulare County probation department conducted a risk assessment and determined that the drug traffickers were “low risk” and recommended zero bail.  The County Sheriff told reporters, “I couldn’t believe we had 150,000 fentanyl pills —one of the most dangerous epidemics facing our nation today, with people in custody that we may potentially be able to impact the future of this type of drug trafficking organization….and we let them go.”

The District Attorney said. “The problem is once again the legislature and the state of California are trying to go down some social experiment born of the back of law-abiding citizens.”