Owner of Mexican restaurant in Cheektowaga arrested as illegal alien (The Buffalo News)

Owner of Mexican restaurant in Cheektowaga arrested as illegal alien

Charged with paying for workers to be smuggled here from Mexico

By Michael Beebe NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Updated: 04/17/08 7:59 AM

When El Caporal, a Mexican restaurant across from Cheektowaga High School, got a review from Cheap Eats in The Buffalo News, the reviewer gave it 3 1/2 pennies out of four.

“Appropriate for a restaurant bearing the Mexican name for a ranch manager,” reviewer Anne Neville wrote of El Caporal, “this is a place to strap on the feedbag for a real south-of-the border experience.”

Federal authorities seconded that comment Wednesday when they arrested the restaurant owner as an illegal Mexican alien. They said he paid for workers to be smuggled across the border to work at El Caporal and in six other restaurants he owns in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.

Simon Banda, 41, of Depew, was awakened at 6 a.m. Wednesday by agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau when they raided the Lancer Court Apartments.

Similar raids by more than 100 agents and state and local police were under way in five states as authorities took down what they called the Simon Banda Organization.

Banda and 11 restaurant managers were charged with felonies, and 45 illegal Mexican aliens were held for deportation. Many of the managers were Banda’s relatives and also here illegally, authorities said.

The investigation began two years ago, when Cheektowaga police gave federal agents a tip about El Caporal.

Located on Union Road across from the high school, El Caporal developed a reputation as a place where hefty portions of good food were served for a reasonable price.

Neville remembers that none of the waiters spoke English.

There was a reason for that, said U.S. Attorney Terrance P. Flynn and Lev J. Kubiak, the acting agent in charge of Immigration and Customs in Buffalo.

They said all seven of Banda’s restaurants employed illegal aliens who were smuggled across the border for $1,500 to $2,700, money they said Banda paid.

The investigation had shown the undocumented workers were forced to work up to 70 hours a week in Banda’s restaurants for $600 every two weeks, the two lawmen said. Half of their wages went back to Banda, they said, to repay the smuggling fees.

Banda and some of his brothers who were also arrested, rented apartments to the workers, and the rent payments, too, came out of their wages.

“To add insult to injury,” Flynn said, “once they possibly paid off their smuggling fees, because they were illegal aliens, they had nowhere to go.”

In addition, Banda skimmed half of the operating profits from each restaurant, according to statements of Nelson Yera Jr., an Immigration and Customs agent, in a lengthy affidavit for search warrants. Banda stored the money in safe-deposit boxes and drove frequently to store the cash with his sister in Marietta, Ga., Yera stated.

El Caporal was one of three restaurants in Western New York owned by Banda that were raided Wednesday.

Also targeted were Azteca Mexican Food Cantina on Vineyard Drive in Dunkirk and Don Lorenzo’s Mexican Restaurant on Main Street in Allegany, a favorite with St. Bonaventure University students.

Kubiak said he doubted the restaurants would reopen soon. All of their workers and most of their managers, he said, were illegal aliens.

Also searched were the La Herradura Mexican Restaurant in Bradford, Pa., another restaurant in Mentor, Ohio, and two in West Virginia, one in Wheeling, the other in New Martinsville. Banda owns all or part of them.

Agents also searched five residences where the illegal workers lived.

Kubiak said his agency targets employers who knowingly employ illegal workers.

"[Immigration and Customs] is focusing on criminal work site investigations of individuals who knowingly hire and employ illegal aliens, essentially drawing them into this country with promises of wealth and a better life,” he said.

He also said by paying substandard wages, these businesses gain a competitive advantage over local companies and chains that follow the law.

Flynn said prosecutors Anthony M. Bruce and Robert C. Moscati will be examining hundreds of boxes of records seized in the raids for possible tax violations.

Flynn also said that prosecutors will be looking at vehicles owned by Banda for possible forfeiture actions.

Banda, he said, entered this country illegally and has been using the birth certificate of a dead Honduran man, Jorge Delarco.

Also arrested were Javier Banda, 34, his brother, of Depew; Sergio Resendiz, 40, of Salamanca; Maurilio Feria, no age available, of Allegany; Jesus Escalante, 30, of Dunkirk; and Honorio Banda, another brother, 40, of Bradford.

Arrested in West Virginia were Alterto and Miguel Antimo of New Martinsville, and Alejandro Garcia of Wheeling. Alvaro Soto of Willoughby, Ohio, was also arrested.