Suspected human smuggling could involve cartel

Law enforcement believes the owner of a local restaurant may have been working with the cartel to bring people into the United States illegally, according to newly available public records in the case.

ANGREJ SINGH

Angrej Singh, 46, of Fort Worth, who owns the Punjabi Dhabba restaurant near Alvord according to public business records, was arrested after multiple law enforcement agencies served a search warrant at his restaurant Oct. 25. He was charged with continuous smuggling of persons, smuggling of persons, operation of stash house and illegal dumping and was released Oct. 30 after posting $112,000 bond, according to Wise County Jail records. 

Singh was arrested again last Friday, apparently on a new charge of smuggling of persons and released on $10,000 bond the same day, according to jail records.

The Messenger received the search warrant affidavit and return this week following a public information request made shortly after Singh’s first arrest which reveals more details about the information law enforcement received leading up to the raid on the restaurant and what was found during the search of the property.

The restaurant has been a focus of investigators since at least March of 2022, according to the affidavit, following tips from citizens.

In one case, a customer at the restaurant told the sheriff’s office what he found when he thought he was going into a bathroom.

“He opened a door he believed was a restroom and observed dozens of small children and women sitting on the floor,” the affidavit states. “The citizen further advised that there was a male subject standing who started yelling at him to leave. The citizen further advised he believed the male subject was armed with a firearm.”

The sheriff’s office also received “several calls prior to 2022 of large amounts of women and children being in the back of 18-wheelers in the parking lot” of the restaurant, according to the affidavit.

On Oct. 23 of this year, the sheriff’s office received information from a local hair stylist who said he/she had cut the hair of a young man who said he had been smuggled into the country and was being forced to work at the Punjabi Dhabba restaurant in order to pay off his debt to the “cartel.”

The hair stylist said the teenage Hispanic male came into the business with a Hispanic man approximately 50-60 years old who asked the younger man for his name when he was signing him in. During the haircut, the stylist said the teen would speak to her/him when the older man was not close, saying he had been brought across the Mexican border approximately three weeks prior.

“(The teen) advised he agreed to pay the ‘cartel’ $10,000 in currency for smuggling him across the border,” the affidavit states. “(The teen) advised that upon getting into the United States, he could not pay the ‘cartel’ the money they demanded and held him at an unknown place in the United States. (The teen) was told that the ‘cartel’ went to his family’s house in Mexico and demanded the money but they could not pay him. (The teen) advised that he was then transported to Punjabi Dhabba in Alvord and was told that he has to work at the business to pay off this debt to the ‘cartel.’”

The teen added that he was not allowed to leave the property, and he had been told his family would be harmed if he left the business before the debt was paid.

The affidavit also reveals that a “cooperating individual” has been working with the Drug Enforcement Agency and has provided information about “human smuggling and narcotic smuggling” with Singh’s operation.

Upon serving the search warrant Oct. 25, officers located “a large building in the back containing multiple single rooms with only beds and clothing” along with six people inside the rooms, according to the affidavit. A total of 12 people were found at the location, 11 of whom were found to be in the country illegally and one who was from India on a temporary visa. Eight of the people were found to be from India and three were from Guatemala, according to the public records.

The three people from Guatemala told officers, “Singh was the ‘boss.’ An unknown associate of Singh who lives in Guatemala (suspected cartel) facilitated their travel into the United States and transport to Alvord directly to Singh to work at his business in Alvord and other locations across Texas,” the affidavit states.

Those three told officers they worked at Singh’s business at his direction to pay off the $30,000 debt for their passage into the United States.

While the Messenger has only received a couple of the multiple affidavits and search warrant returns involved in the case as of press time Wednesday, the public documents that have been received reveal that a cell phone was seized at the restaurant, and a cell phone and $64,354 in U.S. currency was seized when a search warrant was served at an address in Fort Worth which is the same address listed as the mailing address for Singh’s Punjabi Dhabba TX Inc. company, according to public records with the state comptroller’s office.

When reached for comment of the status of the case, Wise County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Craig Johnson, who provided the Messenger with the initial information on the investigation into the restaurant, said he could not comment further at this time due to the ongoing nature of the investigation.