Couple charged in poisoning of food at Mexican eatery that sickened dozens

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — When the pesticide methomyl is sprayed on crops, farm workers aren't supposed to step back into the fields for up to a week.

It's dangerous, potentially deadly stuff and, according to federal prosecutors, it is the poison a Shawnee, Kan., couple chose to exact revenge against one of the owners of the Mi Ranchito restaurant in Lenexa, Kan.

On Thursday, federal prosecutors accused former restaurant employees Arnoldo Bazan and his wife, Yini De La Torre — niece of the restaurant co-founder — of mixing the pesticide into salsa Aug. 30 and sending at least a dozen people to the hospital.

Bazan, 30, and De La Torre, 19, each face one count of conspiring to recklessly endanger other people by conspiring to tamper with a consumer product. They also are charged with two counts of tampering with a consumer product.

Prosecutors allege the couple poisoned the salsa to make customers sick so the restaurant would be blamed and hurt financially.

Methomyl is a hard-to-get pesticide used for commercial fruit, vegetable and cotton crops. It can be purchased and used only by certified professionals

"It's not like you, me or John Doe can go and get it," said Tama Sawyer, director of the University of Kansas Hospital's Poison Control Center.

Sawyer said 7.5 small drops of undiluted methomyl can be lethal. She said she had not seen a case of exposure to the pesticide in the 20 years she had worked at the center.

In a statement released Thursday, federal authorities laid out the case this way:

Bazan worked at Mi Ranchito until June 27. He blamed the restaurant's owner for the loss of his job and vehicle.

In July, an anonymous note was sent to Mi Ranchito's Web site threatening harm if Bazan didn't get his vehicle back.

On Aug. 11, De La Torre added methomyl to salsa, authorities allege, and a day later customers started getting sick.

A little more than two weeks later, Bazan sent word to the owner through an intermediary that "the worst" was yet to come.

On Aug. 30, authorities allege, his wife mixed more methomyl into salsa. Three dozen customers fell ill with nausea, sweating, weakness and cramps, and at least a dozen were rushed to the hospital.

De La Torre told reporters that day that the salsa was the source of the problem. That was her last day at the restaurant.

A little more than a week later, Bazan told her not to talk to investigators or she would be physically harmed, authorities said.

Restaurant co-founder Rulber De La Torre, uncle of Yini De La Torre, said the bad publicity from the incidents had hurt him much worse than the economy.

"I gotta tell you, this is the closest I've ever been to going out of business," he said.

The charges announced Thursday were a "huge relief," he said. "Justice is the best thing that could have happened to me. We're coming back fast."

A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch said Bazan was in custody on another charge he could not specify. He said De La Torre would surrender.

Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.