A New Mexico State Police officer issued a summons for a fourth degree felony charge of obstruction of the administration of the Liquor Control Act against the owner of the Tacos Y Salsa restaurant, for allegedly destroying surveillance footage that was subpoenaed.
Officer Annabelle Gasca filed the charges against restaurant owner Siomara Quintana-Vasquez on Nov. 12, seven months after she initially requested the surveillance footage from the business, part of an investigation where the restaurant was allegedly acting as a bar on April 12. It was entered into the court system on Nov. 14.
Gasca wrote that she served Quintana-Vasquez with the subpoena for the footage on April 25, asking for the surveillance footage from the restaurant for April 5 and April 12. When she received the requested documents, the footage from the bar from April 5 was there, but the footage for the bar from April 12, a week later, was missing.
A State Police officer went to the restaurant on April 12, and his body camera captured staff serving alcoholic drinks “all over the premises and acting as a bar,” she wrote.
“When I contacted SIOMARA to provide the video for April 12, 2025, as requested on the administrative subpoena served on April 25, 2025, she emailed her response stating she no longer had it because it had been too long for my request,” she wrote. “It should be noted this was not my first request for the video, the first request was made on April 25, 2025.”
She did not write when that email exchange took place.
Quintana-Vasquez was arraigned on Dec. 22 and a status conference is set for Jan. 14.
According to the crime Quintana-Vasquez has been charged with, which carries a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison, it is a crime to “forcibly or by bribe, threat or other corrupt practice obstructs, impedes or attempts to obstruct the administration of the provisions of the Liquor Control Act.”