DUBLIN — Months after he was sentenced to federal prison, an alleged Norteño gang leader remains the subject of an ongoing investigation into alleged drug dealing at Santa Rita Jail, authorities have confirmed.
Nicholas Addleman, 38, of Vallejo, was sentenced in April to seven years in a federal prison, ending a gun possession case that involved a monthslong manhunt when he absconded from pretrial release, court records show. But during his stint at Santa Rita Jail, Addleman was suspected of ordering contraband packages containing methamphetamine, authorities said.
The packages, labeled “legal mail” and containing the return address of a local lawyer, actually contained drugs, authorities say. They were allegedly addressed to Addleman’s cellmate at the time, and intercepted about two weeks before the cellmate’s release. Police later recovered surveillance footage of the package being mailed from a post office in San Francisco, allegedly by a woman who matched the description of a family member Addleman frequently contacted.
No charges have been filed in the still-active investigation, court records show.
In 2023, prosecutors labeled Addleman a Norteño “shot caller” with a lengthy criminal history, and charged him with being a felon in possession of pistols found in a hidden compartment in his truck during a San Francisco traffic stop in 2022. He wasn’t allowed to possess guns in part due to a conviction for a San Francisco shooting where the victim was hit in the head but “miraculously survived,” prosecutors said.
After a judge granted pretrial release, Addleman seemingly disappeared, staying one step ahead of authorities as he was implicated, but never charged, in a series of crimes.
Prosecutors linked him to “a hit and-run car accident, a large-scale theft, and apparent firearms manufacturing and possession,” while he was out of custody throughout 2024, according to court records. Other suspicious incidents included a 30-minute police chase through Oakland in April 2024 with a BMW driver who “matched the physical description of Addleman,” and a November 2024 hit-and-run where Addleman’s DNA was found on a gun after his wife’s car struck two parked cars in San Francisco and the driver fled, prosecutors said.
Finally, in December 2024, a robber pulled into a 7-Eleven parking lot in American Canyon, pulled a gun on the clerk and left with $58,624 from the safe, authorities said. A BMW matching the clerk’s description — which included similar front-end damage — was reportedly found parked outside Addleman’s Vallejo home two days later. About two weeks after that, Addleman was arrested in the BMW, and police later found a fake Illinois ID card, as well as “two assault rifles, two suppressor devices, two magazines, a replica firearm,” and gang indicia in the residence, prosecutors said.
Addleman is at FCI Forrest City in Arkansas serving his sentence.
In court filings, his attorneys argued he’d benefit more from true rehabilitation than a cold, hard prison environment.
“There is ample reason to believe that in the right type of setting, Mr. Addleman can flourish and can focus on the right priorities that will lead him to do better,” a defense sentencing memo says. “Mr. Addleman knows that he has made mistakes and that he must pay for those mistakes.”