The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission closed a Mission bar following a human trafficking investigation.
TABC spokesman Chris Porter said Tuesday that the investigation into El Rio Bar at 3609 La Homa Road involved allegations of forced labor and sex trafficking.
In a news release, TABC said El Rio Bar also faces multiple violations of the Alcoholic Beverage Code, including prostitution, the sale of drugs by an employee and drink solicitation, which occurs when an alcohol retailer allows an employee to solicit drinks from a customer that are typically above the customary price.
The bar lost its license Aug. 9 when TABC Special Investigations Unit agents met with the bar’s owner, who surrendered the license.
It’s not immediately clear who the owner is.
A search of business entities on the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts’ website did not return any results for the bar. Neither did a search for the property in the Hidalgo County Appraisal District’s online records or a search of property tax records.
Porter declined to name any potential suspects, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.
The news release said TABC investigators began probing the business in 2020 after receiving information about potential organized crime, including human trafficking.
“During the investigation, agents seized narcotics and observed multiple incidents of alleged drink solicitation,” the news release states. TABC investigators also referred several potential human trafficking victims to non-goverment organizations for victim services, the news release said.
TABC Executive Director Thomas Graham said in a statement that removing El Rio Bar’s ability to sell alcohol cuts off a major source of funding for criminal activity in Mission.
“Not only does this keep the community safer, but it also makes it easier for businesses who follow the law to operate successfully,” Graham said. “I’m proud of the hard work of our investigators, and I’d like to thank the members of the Mission community who stepped up and assisted with this case.”
This is also not the first time TABC has investigated this kind of alleged criminal activity at a Mission bar.
In 2019, TABC investigators arrested Genaro Fuentes and his mother, Rita Martinez, who operated Rita’s Sports Bar, located at 7700 W. Mile 7 Road, and was also known as Perez Lounge or Rita’s Lounge.
A Hidalgo County grand jury eventually indicted the pair on numerous charges relating to sex trafficking, but those were dropped after federal authorities took over the case.
On Feb. 23, a federal grand jury indicted Martinez on 11 counts of sex trafficking of children by force, fraud or coercion while indicting Fuentes on six counts of the same charge.
The pair is accused of making smuggling arrangements for girls and women from the Mexican states of Coahuila and Durango to Hidalgo County between 1996 to 2019 under the guise of working in the restaurant or cleaning houses.
However, when they arrived Martinez told them they owed her a smuggling debt which they needed to pay off by working in her bar.
“After some days or weeks after each woman or girl began working at Martinez’s bar, Martinez would arrange for the clients to take the woman or girl out of the bar to have commercial sex,” the indictment stated.
That document details allegations of beatings by Martinez and sexual assaults by Fuentes.
The mother and son have pleaded not guilty.
