Trial for Fort Worth bar owner accused of allowing cocaine sales in clubs set for 2021
A federal judge has rescheduled a trial for a club owner accused of allowing cocaine sales in his Fort Worth club and other bars in Texas.
United States District Judge Sam A. Lindsay set Sept. 14, 2021, as the new trial date for Alfredo Navarro Hinojosa, of Dallas, and three others accused on federal drug charges.
The federal trial was postponed in March because of COVID-19, and the judge noted the pandemic may cause another continuance in September 2021.
But the judge rescheduled the trial last week because there had been enough of a decline of positive COVID-19 cases in the Dallas Division of the Northern District of Texas, according to federal court documents.
Lindsay noted there had been a few jury trials recently and court officials were not aware of anyone contracting the virus.
Hinojosa, owner of the OK Corral nightclub in south Fort Worth, and other nightclubs and businesses in Texas, was indicted in 2017 on federal charges ranging from managing a drug premises to possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, and he had entered a guilty plea, but he changed it to not guilty, according to federal court documents.
The OK Corral in Fort Worth remains open, according to its Facebook page.
Hinojosa is accused of permitting cocaine sales in his clubs to drive profits. Miguel Casas, Martin Salvador Rodriguez and Cesar Mendez also face drug charges in the case.
At one time, there had been 18 defendants in the case.
The Dallas man ran an “empire” of nightclubs, according to a federal indictment, including the OK Corral at La Gran Plaza in Fort Worth, and the OK Corral, Far West and Medusa clubs in Dallas.
The clubs, which are popular tour stops for regional Mexican bands, raked in more than $100 million from 2014 to 2016, according to a federal indictment.
During that time, Hinojosa is accused of allowing dealers to sell cocaine in the clubs’ bathrooms to keep business booming.
“We can’t really clean it [up] because then we lose business,” Hinojosa said in a recording obtained by authorities, according to the indictment.
Hinojosa was known to Fort Worth police.
Fort Worth police had made 19 drug arrests at the OK Corral at La Gran Plaza from 2014 to 2017, all for cocaine possession or distribution, police told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2017.
In one case, officers seized 17 1/2 grams of cocaine.
Even with an indictment looming in 2017, Hinojosa apparently stayed involved with OK Corral.
The Fort Worth school district in December 2017 confirmed that Hinojosa made a $5,000 donation from OK Corral to the PTA at nearby Worth Heights Elementary School in October 2017.
A photo posted on Facebook by the PTA showed what appeared to be Hinojosa and a business partner presenting a giant check, which had the OK Corral logo on it.
This report contains information from Star-Telegram archives.
