HHS officials asked employees at the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building to work from home as crime, drug use soared in the area in 2023
Chris Hansen recounts following a San Francisco fentanyl operation
'TruBlu' host Chris Hansen tells 'Jesse Watters Primetime' about a secretive drug trade in front of the city's federal building.
Chris Hansen, former host of "To Catch a Predator," investigated a fentanyl fencing operation outside the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco and spoke to Fox News about the crisis that previously led the feds to recommend government employees work from home.
Hansen, now host of "Takedown" on TruBlu, followed a retired undercover detective named Elmore who told him the trade of the controlled substance abounds in the area of the federal building, but is difficult to detect when it is smuggled across the border.
Hansen noted a fence had to be constructed around the federal building because of the drug activity, which is named for the speaker emerita who has represented the city in Congress since 1987.
A dealer at the hotspot was caught during Hansen's investigation, according to "Jesse Watters Primetime" host Jesse Watters, and evaded police by blending in with the homeless population.
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Hansen said many of those involved in the drug trade there are illegal immigrants from Honduras who remit proceeds back to the Central American nation where the windfall funds mansions and the like.
"Now you've got a situation here where this is not just a ragtag group of Honduran immigrants. These are merchants of death," he said.
"Each one of these, 350 to 400 illegal immigrant fentanyl dealers is making $3- to $400,000 a year, and as we discussed, some of that money — most of that money — is going back to Honduras."
In August 2023, Health and Human Services officials issued a stay-at-home recommendation "in light of the conditions" at the federal building, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
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Hansen added that the city prosecutor's office has taken a tougher tact toward drug sales and trafficking under Democratic District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, but that it was allowed to run rampant under her predecessor, Chesa Boudin, who was recalled by San Francisco voters in 2022.
Hansen said, however, that Elmore told him the judges have been more lax than Jenkins.
The longtime television investigator said the migrants committing the illegality did not seem afraid to be caught, and recounted that people were using fentanyl in front of him and the undercover officer at a similar distance to that of himself and Watters on-set.
"They light lighters underneath tinfoil with the fentanyl in it, and then they inhale the fumes and they walk around like zombies, and then the other side of this is to get the money they steal from retail stores all over San Francisco and the suburbs," he said.
Hansen explained that some of the drug trade is funded by fencing stolen loot from stores in more posh suburbs like San Mateo. He claimed such individuals would travel via mass transit, steal merchandise that fell just under California's much-maligned $950 threshold for felony theft, and then fence the items for drug money.
"They know if they only steal $900 worth of merchandise, they're not going to face any consequences. They get a ticket," Hansen said.
California's Proposition 47 of 2014 reclassified the threshold for felony versus misdemeanor theft.
Later Monday, Watters asked Hansen about some of the predators he caught in his more recent investigations on TruBlu.
Hansen shared the story and video of a man being allegedly caught soliciting a minor who appeared to suggest he could not follow through with any sexual impropriety because he previously accidentally shot himself in his genitalia.
"I got shot with a full metal jacket — .380 through my private parts, through my leg, so it don't work right. I can't have sex with women," the man said in the clip.
"[The suspect was] in a courtroom for a criminal hearing, and he's texting the decoy in our investigation in Alabama," Hansen said. "He makes a date, shows up. We go through the whole routine, I interrogate him, the sheriff's detectives interrogate him, and then spontaneously, he tells me he couldn't have done anything anyway because he shot himself in his private parts with his gun while cleaning it."
Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to
