Alleged drug runner freed on Zero Dollar Bail rearrested week later, Fresno sheriff says

A 23-year-old Los Angeles man, freed last week on the same day he was arrested in Fresno County while allegedly transporting a large amount of fentanyl and heroin, was rearrested this week.

Served with a federal warrant this time, Pedro Miranda-Muro was placed on a federal hold Tuesday and was not eligible for bail, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office reported. He was found in Huron by a team of sheriff’s, police and Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

Miranda-Muro was first arrested Jan. 3 by a narcotics team patrolling near Interstate 5 and Highway 33 while in possession of 11 pounds of fentanyl and a pound of heroin, valued at $230,000, said sheriff’s spokesman Tony Botti. But he was freed after four hours due to the Zero-Dollar Emergency Bail Rule, then in place in Fresno County Superior Court.

The rule allowed suspects arrested for certain lower-level felonies and misdemeanors to be released soon after, without having to put up bail money. It was implemented statewide to reduce crowding and the spread of COVID-19 among inmates at both state prisons and county jailhouses. The Fresno County Superior Court ended the rule the day after Miranda-Muro walked out of jail without posting bond.

Botti noted that Miranda-Muro would not have been free if the Zero-Dollar rule ended a day earlier.