Hayward bar owner convicted for trying to smuggle cocaine through SFO

SAN FRANCISCO - A Hayward bar owner has been found guilty of running a drug smuggling scheme, according to the U.S. Department of Justice for Northern California.     

Lemack Bellot, 42, tried to smuggle cocaine through San Francisco International Airport between May and November 2018, prosecutors said.     

Bellot had allegedly been paying airport employees to allow drugs to be smuggled past security. 

Unbeknownst to Bellot, the shipments weren't actually cocaine, because he was actually negotiating with a confidential source working for the DEA. 

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The source was posing as an Atlanta-based drug trafficker who would fly to the Bay Area to buy cocaine and needed a quick way to transport it back to Atlanta for distribution. 

The source would meet Bellot at his Hayward business, the Fogline Sports Bar and Grill, where he told the informant that he used to run "bricks" -- or kilograms of cocaine -- from Bay Area airports to cities across the country. Bellot told the source that his contact was arrested and that he had taken a break, but was starting up again now that he had found a new airport contact.    

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Bellot was indicted in February of 2019 by a federal grand jury on two counts: one for attempting to aid and abet the possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, and another count for 5 kilograms or more of cocaine. He was convicted on both counts.    

A date for Bellot's sentencing has not yet been set. He faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, plus restitution on the first count, as well as life in prison and a fine of $500,000 on the second count.  

Bellot and his bar, formerly known as Russell City Grill, were on the TV show "Bar Rescue" on Spike TV in 2016.