Meat market's drug allegations

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Carniceria El Torito in Bernalillo roasts delicious green chili, can cut you a slab of meat for dinner, but according to investigators they have also helped deliver cocaine.

Jose Victor Garcia and Lazaro Quinteros-Rojos stood before a judge Saturday on cocaine trafficking charges.

A criminal complaint says the two were busted Friday in a back alley of the South Valley, trying to sell a kilogram of cocaine for $30,000. They didn't know the buyer was an informant and that investigators were ready to move in for the arrests.

The way the deal was allegedly set up, started with a trip to the market.

The informant told investigators about going to El Torito and setting up a buy, with the store's owner.

Investigators say they were listening in, on the conversation, through a recording device. They think the owner facilitated the deal.

The owner has not been arrested.

KRQE News 13 found him at the market and he did not want to do an interview on camera, but claims he doesn't know either of the alleged drug dealers. He also claims that he's running a legitimate business.

According to the criminal complaint, he's the one who arranged for the drug pick-up in the South Valley, where Garcia and Quinteros-Rojos were arrested.