Trial starts Friday for Fort Worth club owner accused of allowing cocaine sales in bars

Opening statements and testimony will begin Friday morning in a Dallas federal courtroom in the trial of a club owner accused of allowing cocaine sales in his Fort Worth club and other bars in Texas.

Alfredo Navarro Hinojosa, of Dallas, owner of the OK Corral nightclub in south Fort Worth, and other nightclubs and businesses in Texas, and three others are accused on federal drug charges.

The federal trial was postponed in March 2020 because of COVID-19, and the judge noted the pandemic may cause another continuance this month.

But federal court officials said jury selection started this week, and opening statements are Friday before United States District Judge Sam A. Lindsay.

Hinojosa was indicted in 2017 on federal charges ranging from managing a drug premises to possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, and he had entered a guilty plea, but he changed it to not guilty, according to federal court documents.

The OK Corral in Fort Worth remains open, according to its Facebook page.

Hinojosa is accused of permitting cocaine sales in his clubs to drive profits. Miguel Casas, Martin Salvador Rodriguez and Cesar Mendez also face drug charges in the case.

At one time, there had been 18 defendants in the case. Information on the status of the other defendants was not available on Tuesday.

The Dallas man ran an “empire” of nightclubs, according to a federal indictment, including the OK Corral at La Gran Plaza in Fort Worth, and the OK Corral, Far West and Medusa clubs in Dallas.

The clubs, which are popular tour stops for regional Mexican bands, raked in more than $100 million from 2014 to 2016, according to a federal indictment.

During that time, Hinojosa is accused of allowing dealers to sell cocaine in the clubs’ bathrooms to keep business booming.

“We can’t really clean it [up] because then we lose business,” Hinojosa said in a recording obtained by authorities, according to the indictment.

Hinojosa was known to Fort Worth police.

Fort Worth police had made 19 drug arrests at the OK Corral at La Gran Plaza from 2014 to 2017, all for cocaine possession or distribution, police told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2017.

Even with an indictment looming in 2017, Hinojosa apparently stayed involved with OK Corral.

The Fort Worth school district in December 2017 confirmed that Hinojosa made a $5,000 donation from OK Corral to the PTA at nearby Worth Heights Elementary School in October 2017.

A photo posted on Facebook by the PTA showed what appeared to be Hinojosa and a business partner presenting a giant check, which had the OK Corral logo on it.

This report contains information from Star-Telegram archives.