GREENVILLE — More than a week after a state grand jury indicted 34 people for allegedly running a regional narcotics hub linked to the cartel out of an Upstate restaurant, 11 of those defendants appeared in front of a judge at the Greenville County Courthouse for bond hearings.
After the indictments were unsealed May 18, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that the Los Primos restaurant housed a ring responsible for pumping close to $90 million worth of methamphetamine and cocaine into the state, selling the drugs from the restaurant and food trucks.Â
Inside the courtroom May 26, Assistant Attorney General John Conrad briefed the judge on their role in the reported trafficking operation and a clearer picture of the enterprise's inner workings began to appear.
Absent from the proceedings was Alejandro "Happy" Lagunas Soto, who Conrad said acted as the primary meth importer for the operation.
Soto remains at large.
First to appear before Circuit Court Judge Alison Lee was Soto's mother, Maria L. Soto, also known as La Dona. According to Conrad, the grey-haired woman sitting at the defense table functioned as the "money person" for the narcotics hub.Â
Next to go before the judge were brothers Isidro and Bartolo Gonzalez, the reported owners of Los Primos. While Alejandro Soto was the chief importer, the Gonzalez brothers, Conrad said, ran operations on the ground at the restaurant.Â
Isidro Gonzalez appears for a bond hearing after being indicted in relation to an alleged drug trafficking ring operating out of Los Primos restaurant in Greenville. Conor Hughes/staff
The lawyer for Isidro Gonzalez argued his client did not own Los Primos and only worked there. Conrad said Isidro Gonzalez operated the restaurant, as well as the multi-million drug operation with his brother. In his briefing to the judge, the prosecutor presented 10 instances between 2020 and 2021 in which an undercover officer bought a total of more than 770 grams of meth and about 41 grams of cocaine from him and recorded the exchanges at the restaurant on West Parker Road across from Monaview Elementary School.Â
"Obviously, there were numerous other transactions that were taking place under his authority," Conrad said.
While Isidro Gonzalez faces 16 separate charges, many of them linked to the undercover buys, his brother faces just three. Conrad said Bartolo Gonzalez was an active participant in the drug trafficking, but did not play as large a roll in the day-to-day sale of narcotics. He is only charged in connection to one direct sale to an undercover officer.
Fabian Gonzalez, the son of Bartolo Gonzalez, was also indicted in relation to the drug trafficking operation and appeared in court May 26.Â
In addition to the defendants who Conrad said headed the operation, a handful of alleged low- and mid-level members of the ring also went in front of Lee.Â
One reportedly ran drugs from the back of Los Primos to the front when Isidro Gozalez had a buyer. Another, Conrad said, sold small quantities at the Los Primos butcher shop attached to the restaurant that the Gonzalez brothers also operated. A few acted as facilitators, bringing cocaine or helping Alejandro Soto transport the narcotics from a hub in Atlanta into Greenville County, according to the prosecutor.Â
Officials have said the Los Primos operation had ties to the La Familia Michiocana Cartel in Mexico and was mostly supplied through a larger hub in Atlanta.
