The Eagan City Council approved a liquor license for a local restaurant at the center of a 2016 federal drug trafficking and money laundering indictment.
The council approved an on-sale liquor and Sunday license for El Parian Mexican Grill at 1960 Cliff Lake Road without discussion as part of the consent agenda at its July 17 meeting. According to council documents, the license will be issued to a new owner of the restaurant, Gustavo Zapata. As is standard procedure for liquor license applications, the Eagan Police Department reviewed the request.
The restaurant, and two others in the chain, was at the center of an August 2016 federal indictment alleging its owner opened the restaurant with drug trafficking proceeds and used illegal immigrant labor to keep it running.
The August 2016 federal indictment alleges three men, Aldo Escoto, Rosenda Garcia-Garcia, and Edgar Jose Ramirez-Mendoza, conspired to transport, store and distribute methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana. The indictment alleges Escoto, a fugitive since the indictment was released, used drug proceeds to buy real estate and cars and to open the El Parian chain of three restaurants, including one at the Cliff Lake shopping mall in Eagan.
“Escoto used the restaurants to conceal his drug proceeds and hide his drug trafficking activities by creating the appearance that he was a legitimate business owner and to promote further drug distribution by serving as locations for the storage and distribution of illegal drugs and drug proceeds, as well as meeting sites to further controlled substance distribution operations,” the indictment reads.
The indictment also claims Escoto increased profits at the restaurants by staffing them with “illegal aliens…willing to work long hours for multiple days at a time.” The undocumented workers were paid in cash and harbored at homes bought with drug proceeds, according to the indictment.
Property other than the restaurant—including cars, houses, and bank accounts--funded with proceeds of the criminal enterprise were seized by federal authorities. A house at 4471 Johnny Cake Ridge Road alleged to house illegal immigrant workers was auctioned off last May.
The sale of the house followed a settlement between the federal government and Escoto’s wife, Imelda, last October. Under the terms of the settlement, the U.S. Treasury is auctioned off the Johnny Cake Ridge Road property, but Escoto was allowed to keep a townhome at 1992 Jan Echo Trail, across the street from the Eagan El Parian restaurant.