Pizza Parlor Owner Busted for Alleged Massive Drug Operation

Owners of a St. Paul, Minn. pizza parlor are being accused of using their restaurant as a front to move massive amounts of marijuana. According to KARE 11, locals thought it was "odd" that Papa Dimitri's Classic Pizza did very little business and that employees wouldn't even eat there — they would eat at a restaurant down the street.

Local police set up a surveillance operation outside the restaurant for six days this past November. In that time, five customers visited the restaurant, and there were four deliveries.

The owners of the restaurant are listed as Ryan Dimitri Brooks Sr., his mother, Rosalyn Brooks, and grandmother, Joyce Merkley. Between August 2012 and October 2013, the United States Postal Service intercepted three packages to Merkley's house and one to the restaurant that contained a total of 37 pounds of marijuana. In 2006, Brooks and his mother were arrested with 107 pounds of marijuana while driving a rental car back to Minnesota from Las Vegas.

A search by police of Brooks' house produced more marijuana, cocaine, a handguns, $7,000 in cash, and vials marked "testosterone." He was charged last Friday with drug possession, firearm possession, and "engaging in business of concealing criminal proceeds."

Papa Dimitri's is just one in a long line of eateries that use their establishments to deal illegal substances, including this Coachella Tex-Mex meth ring, this Chinese man who spiked his noodles with opium, this Queen pizzeria that was raided for smuggling cocaine, and this McDonald's employee who sold heroin in kids' Happy Meal boxes.