For poisoning the salsa at Mi Ranchito in Lenexa and serving it to customers, Yini De La Torre is going to federal prison for 87 months.
The 20-year-old former waitress at the Mexican restaurant was sentenced Wednesday. She had pleaded guilty a year ago to adding Methomyl-based pesticide to salsa on two occasions and serving it to patrons. A total of 48 people fell ill after the August 2009 poisonings,
suffering nausea, abdominal
cramps, weakness, sweating and discomfort.
Some were hospitalized.
"The defendant demonstrated a disregard for the potentially
life-threatening consequence of her actions and for the harm she
actually inflicted on the victims," Patrick Holland, the special agent in
charge of the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations, said in a
statement. "We will continue to work with our law enforcement
counterparts to aggressively pursue those who place the public health at
risk and harm others by tampering with food, drugs or other
FDA-regulated products."
De La Torre admitted in her plea that she and her husband and co-defendant, Arnoldo Bazan,
wanted to get revenge on the restaurant's owner, hurting the
restaurant's business by poisoning customers because Bazan
allegedly believed that the restaurant's owner was responsible for costing
him a job at the Olathe Mi Ranchito (where he worked until June 27,
2009) and the theft of his vehicle.
In July 2009, Mi Ranchito's owner reported Bazan to Overland Park police for allegedly stalking him.
Prosecutors allege that threats against the owner were issued through Mi Ranchito's website, saying there would be trouble if Bazan's vehicle wasn't returned. Wonder how
authorities ever figured this one out?
Then on August 28, 2009, Bazan allegedly sent a threat through a family
member to the restaurant's owner that "the worst is yet to come."
Court documents indicate a possible rift between Bazan and De
La Torre. On September 8, 2009, Bazan allegedly warned De La Torre that if she spoke with police,
she would be physically
harmed.
A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office says Mi Ranchito's
business took a huge hit following the poisoning, with sales at the
Lenexa restaurant declining about $250,000 in September and October 2009.
Bazan's trial is scheduled for April 4.
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