The story of Lost Society co-owner Brightman "Brian" Nwatu hit The Dallas Morning News this morning, but it's nothing new to Avi Adelman. Soon as I saw the tale of the Lower Greenville bar owner who's been evading deportation for five years, I went over to Barking Dogs, where, sure enough, Avi's been on this for days -- he was even there when Nwatu was taken into custody last week and put on immigration hold and has the photos to prove it.
Two days later, Avi also had the story of Fernando Rosales, Lost Society's co-owner arrested for lying to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission when he claimed to be the sole owner of an establishment. And yesterday, Avi did a bang-up bit of investigative work by tracking down all the federal docs detailing Nwatu's hide-and-seek with federal authorities who've been trying to deport him since late 2004. Toward the end, Avi writes:
The deportation issue was not the only thing that got Nwatu and Rosales in trouble. Too many strange things were going on at Lost Society, which caught the attention of more investigators, which resulted in more cooperation and coordination. The shooting of a bar patron after he left Lost Society a few weeks ago did not set off the final alarm, but it illustrated how fast Nwatu needed to be pulled off the street.