A Fresno restaurant owner has been charged with hiring a motorcycle gang member to set fire to his underperforming restaurant, according to authorities.
Robert “Bobby” Salazar, 63, was charged with arson of commercial property and arson in furtherance of a felony, U.S. Atty. Eric Grant announced in a news release.
Salazar owned a chain of restaurants in Fresno called Bobby Salazar’s Taqueria and Bobby Salazar’s Mexican Restaurant & Cantina, according to court documents. On Jan. 31, 2024, Salazar terminated the lease for the Blackstone Avenue location because he wanted to change the name of the restaurant and was told his lease agreement wouldn’t allow it. He then used the facility to store restaurant equipment and closed the restaurant to the public.
After the restaurant closed, Salazar renewed the location’s insurance policy and increased it by about $102,000 from the previous year, according to court documents.
On April 2, 2024, a fire broke out at the restaurant, according to the release, which cited court documents. Investigators determined that the cause of the blaze was arson and that the front and rear doors of the restaurant were open. They also found an ignitable liquid, two partially burned gas cans and surveillance video of two people lighting the fire.
Agents located and interviewed the woman seen on the surveillance video, who told them Salazar had paid her and another man to set fire to the restaurant, but she claimed she didn’t light the fire, according to court records. Law enforcement also examined her phone records and found conversations in which she and the man in the surveillance video discussed the alleged arson, authorities said.
Investigators discovered that the man in the video and the alleged arsonist was the president of the Screamin’ Demons Motorcycle Club, according to the release. Salazar allegedly hired the motorcycle club president to set fire to the restaurant and told his insurance company that he wasn’t involved with the arson, investigators said. The insurance company paid out a claim of $980,739.
If convicted, Salazar faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and maximum penalty of 20 years for commercial arson, in addition to 10 years in prison for arson in furtherance of a felony.
Salazar has an alleged history of arson, according to investigators. In March 2020, Salazar allegedly offered one of his employees $20,000 to lie and say another former employee sold drugs out of the restaurant, according to court records. After the employee refused, their car was allegedly set on fire using gasoline, investigators said.
In July 2020, Salazar’s former brother-in-law’s house was set on fire with a Molotov cocktail; the fire took place after the man divorced Salazar’s sister and quit doing business with them, according to court records. The former brother-in-law told investigators that he found another Molotov cocktail near a window before the fire and that Salazar had also driven by his house a few nights before the fire. After the fire, Salazar allegedly called him, saying, “Looks like somebody got you.”
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