San Francisco police arrested four suspected drug dealers and seized more than 20,000 counterfeit pills, multiple firearms and cash after a months-long investigation that traced back to the fatal overdose of a 16-year-old San Francisco resident in April. Officers served search warrants at three residences on Sept. 8 and 9, recovering suspected counterfeit Xanax, oxycodone, hydrocodone, cyclobenzaprine and other narcotics, along with a semi-automatic assault rifle, a semi-automatic pistol and $2,267 in cash.
Police posted information about the arrests and seizures Monday, according to a San Francisco Police
news release. The investigation began on April 7, 2026, when officers responded to a home on Bush Street after a mother found her teenage son dead from a suspected overdose, the release states. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the teen died from a combination of drugs including cychlorphine, a newly emerging synthetic opioid described in the release as even stronger than fentanyl.
Investigators with SFPD's Narcotics Unit collected evidence at the scene, including apparent pharmaceutical medication, and worked to trace the pills back to their source. Officers later tested counterfeit pills seized in earlier investigations and found some contained cychlorphine, per the same release. The department says it is now working with the federal Food and Drug Administration to determine whether any of the pills seized this month also contain the drug.
Who Was Arrested and What Was Found
Officers arrested 46-year-old Nicholas Wallace on Sept. 8 and searched his home on the 700 block of O'Farrell Street, recovering 34 suspected oxycodone pills and cocaine. At the same address, officers arrested 44-year-old Sharonee Hyson, who was on active parole and found in possession of 11.7 grams of cocaine base and a loaded firearm, according to the release.
The next day, officers served search warrants at residences on the 300 block of Executive Park Boulevard and the 1300 block of Newhall Avenue. There, officers seized the bulk of the more than 20,000 pills along with 68.5 grams of MDMA and 6.5 grams of black tar heroin. Police arrested 46-year-old Leander Pitts and 39-year-old Starr Lamare at those locations. All four suspects were booked into San Francisco County Jail on charges including possession for sale of narcotics and firearms charges.
A Drug Unknown to Test Strips
Cychlorphine was involved in the fatal overdose of a San Francisco teenager in April. Health officials have warned that the drug is undetectable by standard fentanyl test strips, a gap that leaves users unaware of what they are actually taking, according to SF.gov.
The DEA followed in May with a nationwide public safety advisory warning that illicit fentanyl and fake prescription tablets are increasingly being combined with novel synthetic opioids including cychlorphine and nitazenes, per the Drug Enforcement Administration. Federal agents warned these additives are often unknown to buyers and create unpredictable overdose risks. Early pharmacological research described by the Partnership to End Addiction indicates cychlorphine is a synthetic opioid estimated to be up to 10 times more potent than fentanyl, inducing severe respiratory depression and requiring repeated or higher doses of naloxone to reverse an overdose.
A Chemical Class Revived From the 1960s
Cychlorphine belongs to a chemical class known as orphines, originally synthesized by Belgian pharmaceutical researchers in the 1960s but abandoned for medical use due to severe toxicity and high overdose risk, according to Becker's Hospital Review. Published chemical formulas from that era have allowed illicit chemists to produce potent compounds without specialized facilities. By May, data from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy showed orphines had been identified in 14 states, while cychlorphine specifically had been identified in 10 states and linked to at least 55 fatal overdoses nationally, with major concentrations in Tennessee, Texas and Ohio.
The federal government moved to formally classify the drug in July, when the DEA published a notice of intent to temporarily place cychlorphine into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, citing its extreme public safety hazard and lack of accepted medical use, according to the Federal Register. That classification carries the highest administrative and criminal penalties for illicit manufacturing and trafficking. Under California Health and Safety Code Section 11355, selling or delivering substitute or imitation drugs in place of a controlled substance is also felony-eligible, while Section 11351 penalizes possession for sale of controlled substances with up to four years in state prison.
SF Deaths Dipped Even as New Threat Emerged
San Francisco's overdose crisis has shown modest progress, but the arrival of cychlorphine, undetectable by the tools many harm-reduction workers rely on, threatens to complicate that progress.
In July, the city's public health department announced it was launching municipal wastewater testing to detect novel synthetic opioids and non-fentanyl adulterants circulating in the local drug supply, an early-warning effort meant to catch emerging compounds before they show up in autopsy results. San Francisco's police chief is Derrick Lew.
“Our investigators will stop at nothing to ensure deadly narcotics are taken off our streets and individuals who peddle them are arrested and held accountable,” Lew said in the release. “This tragic case highlights the dangers these deadly drugs pose to our community. I want to thank our investigators whose diligent work will no doubt save lives and keep our streets safer.”
Officers say they identified the suspected sources of the counterfeit pills and conducted multiple controlled drug buys before serving the September search warrants. Police credited Officer Michael Montero, Officer Jeffrey Ospital, Sgt. Brent Sullivan and Capt. Jon Kasper for the investigation, and said the case remains open and active, with additional arrests possible as leads are followed. Anyone with information is asked to contact SFPD at 1-415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 beginning the message with SFPD.
