For decades, a chemical called PCE has seeped into the ground beneath thousands of dry cleaners across California, threatening public health, a Tribune investigation found.
A drug crackdown in the Tenderloin and South of Market has resulted in more than 600 arrests, with authorities seizing more than 200 pounds of fentanyl since the initiative launched in May, Mayor London Breed said.
But the coordinated effort, involving city and state law enforcement agents, appears to be leading to violent clashes, said Supervisor Dean Preston, whose district includes the Tenderloin. “They’re poking a hornet’s nest,” he said in an interview.
Shops contend with petty thieves seeking money to buy the drug. Residents are reluctant to use their largest park, where people frequently overdose and die.