San Antonio chicken restaurant owner arrested on cocaine trafficking charges

The owner of San Antonio eatery Pollos Asados "El Gordo" was indicted last week on cocaine-trafficking charges, court records obtained by the Current show.

Jonathan Linares Lumbreras, 32, is charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. If convicted, he faces five to 40 years' imprisonment, a $5 million fine and a minimum of four years' supervised release.

He's currently being held without bail and entered a not-guilty plea.

The FBI first began looking into Lumbreras in April, when an informant set up a transaction with the restaurant owner via the encrypted messaging app Threema, according to an arrest affidavit.

Lumbreras sent an accomplice, only identified in the affidavit as "co-conspirator 1," to carry out the transaction, the document states. Co-conspirator 1, whom the FBI identified as a Lumbreras drug mule, sold the undercover agent blow on two separate occasions, according to the affidavit. Both transactions reportedly took place in April in the parking lot of the McDonald's at Walters Street and I-35, and the total weight of the drugs was around a single kilogram, the FBI said.

In the affidavit, the FBI said agents were able to arrest Lumbreras after one of his other drug mules, Edward Smith, was arrested by the Texas Department of Transportation with more than a kilo of cocaine in his car. Smith was on his way to deliver another order arranged by Lumbrera to the undercover FBI agent at the time of his arrest, the document states.

Lumbrera's Pollos Asados "El Gordo," located at 2404 Pinn Road, has been a popular West Side eatery since opening. Earlier this year, it was even featured on an episode KSAT-TV's Texas Eats program.

Indeed, Lumbrera's arrest has led some in SA's legal community to compare the restaurateur to Gus Fring, the owner of the Los Pollos Hermanos chain in the AMC series Breaking Bad , according to the Express-News .

In the show, Fring runs a meth-trafficking operation out of his restaurant business.

Lumbreras' recent arrest isn't the first time he's faced narcotics-related charges.

In 2021, Lumbreras was arrested after police found him in possession of 25 kilos of cocaine, 35 firearms, two silencers, a grenade, body armor and $265,000 in cash, according to the U.S. Justice Department . In that case, he was sentenced to 20 months in prison and placed on federal supervision.

The arrest also makes the second time recently that the FBI has made news in connection with a South Texas food business.

In July, the FBI agents raided several Delia's Tamales restaurants, including one in San Antonio. Although the agency hasn't publicly disclosed the reason for that raid, the investigation may stem from lawsuit filed last year that accused the chain's owners of engaging in wage theft.

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