Federal agents at Delia’s Tamales in McAllen

McALLEN — Federal agents were seen entering the Delia’s Tamales restaurant, 3400 N. 10 St. Wednesday morning. 

Approximately four law enforcement officers — some wearing ballistic vests bearing the word “POLICE” and others reading “FBI” — entered the restaurant at approximately 10 a.m.

One unmarked law enforcement vehicle parked just outside the restaurant’s drive-thru lane, which was empty at the time of their arrival.

A few minutes later, dine-in customers could be seen emerging from the restaurant’s front door and leaving in their vehicles. 

A woman with a bullet proof vest reading “POLICE” emerged briefly to take photographs of the front of the restaurant, then returned inside. 

Minutes later, two men bearing vests that read “FBI”  retrieved what appeared to be empty cardboard evidence boxes from their vehicles and returned inside the restaurant. 

A spokesperson for the FBI confirmed that agents are conducting “court authorized” activity at the restaurant. 

A group of customers who arrived just after 10:15 a.m. were met with a printed sign reading “We are closed.”

The group said they found another Delia’s location on Jackson Road to be similarly closed. 

The FBI spokesperson also confirmed that agents are carrying out similar activity at other Delia’s locations. 

The company that owns Delia’s Tamales, Del-Gar Foods, is currently embroiled in a wage theft lawsuit in federal court.

In the suit, more than two dozen former employees of the restaurant claim that Delia’s engaged in fraud by forcing them to work long hours without paying them overtime, then terminated their employment as they reached retirement age. 

In early versions of the lawsuit, the employees — many of whom are undocumented — also claimed that Delia’s obtained fraudulent Social Security numbers for its employees, then withheld Social Security deductions from their paychecks. 

The employees claimed the company kept those payroll deductions for itself while threatening to report the employees to immigration officials if they complained. 

Among the allegations included in more recent court filings are claims that Delia Lubin, owner and founder of the company, assigned some of those employees as her personal house cleaners. Lubin is not a named defendant in the civil suit. 

The newer allegations also claim that for years the company has maintained two sets of books — one to record legitimate business and payroll accounting, and another to record illicit transactions, such as under-the-table payments to employees.

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