A Spice Too Far In Salsa: Pesticide

It's one thing to fall ill after someone leaves the potato salad out a little too long by mistake. It's quite another to get sick as a dog after somebody laces the salsa at the local Mexican restaurant with a potent pesticide.

But that's what happened in a suburb of Kansas City, where a waitress at a Mi Ranchito restaurant just admitted to poisoning the salsa, sickening several dozen customers in two separate incidents last August.

Tuesday, Yini De La Torre, 19, pleaded guilty to a federal count of conspiracy to tamper with a consumer product, the U.S. Attorney there said in a statement.

 

Why did she do it? Revenge, it seems. De La Torre's husband, Arnoldo Bazan, also worked for the local restaurant chain. He believed the owner was responsible for suspending Bazan from work and the theft of his vehicle, the federal prosecutors said. So, they allege, Bazan "hatched a plot" to get even.

The poisonings hurt business at all six Mi Ranchito restaurants, the feds said, with sales at the Lenexa location, where the bad salsa went down, falling by about $250,000 in the two months afterward. Nobody died but some of the victims had to go to the hospital.

Small wonder. The Methomyl-based pesticide dumped in the salsa is highly toxic when ingested. Symptoms of poisoning include weakness, blurred vision, headache, nausea, cramps, and vomiting.

De La Torre is set to be sentenced on May 18. Her husband, who is presumed innocent, is awaiting trial.