State alcohol regulators have shut off the taps at Bar Latino, the Meadowview Road nightspot in Greensboro that has spent years cycling through fines, suspensions and, in 2024, a fatal shooting in its parking lot. The North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission suspended the bar's ABC permits because of what officials describe as an active and ongoing criminal investigation by state Alcohol Law Enforcement agents.
The news came Saturday in a post from the Greensboro Police Department, which said officials will release more information as it becomes available. Bar Latino sits at 316 W. Meadowview Road, according to Waze, along a commercial stretch in south Greensboro. ALE Director Bryan House said the suspension, reported by the Greensboro News & Record, “reinforces the shared expectation that these establishments operate responsibly, comply with the law, and do not place their patrons or surrounding communities at risk.”
How a Summary Suspension Works
The commission's move is what state law calls a summary suspension, an emergency step regulators can take before any formal hearing takes place. Under North Carolina General Statutes § 150B-3(c) and § 18B-904(e)(4), the ABC Commission can immediately suspend a permit if it determines emergency action is necessary to protect public health, safety or welfare. Those suspensions stay in place until the Office of Administrative Hearings resolves the case or the commission itself modifies the order.
Selling alcohol without a valid permit while a suspension is active is not a minor paperwork problem. Under North Carolina law, doing so is a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by fines and up to two years in prison, according to guidance from the UNC School of Government previously reported by Hoodline. State agents actively monitor suspended businesses to check whether they keep pouring anyway.
A Long Trail of Violations
Bar Latino's run-ins with regulators go back nearly a decade. In September 2017, the ABC Commission cited the bar for refilling liquor bottles, a major offense that led to a 53-day license suspension, and by January 2018 the business paid a $300 fine to avoid a separate three-day suspension over an audit division violation, according to records compiled by SafeProof.
The pattern continued into the following decade. In August 2022, Bar Latino LLC struck an Offer in Compromise with the ABC Commission, paying a $5,000 fine to avoid a 50-day permit suspension after being cited for failing to superintend the premises, permitting after-hours alcohol consumption, and failing to clear tables by 2:30 a.m. A year later, in August 2023, the business reached another compromise, paying $1,000 to avoid a 10-day suspension on a second charge of failing to superintend the premises — the second consecutive year the venue was cited on that count, per ABC Commission records.
A Killing in the Parking Lot
The bar's troubles have not been limited to paperwork. On January 21, 2024, 36-year-old Gabriel Salazar-Lopez was fatally shot in a gravel parking lot next to Bar Latino following an incident inside the venue involving gang gestures, according to WFMY News 2. The victim's brother was also grazed by gunfire in the same shooting. That June, Greensboro police arrested 32-year-old Jose Luis Rea-Lopez and charged him with first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the killing; court records at the time indicated he was held without bond, the station's report noted.
Part of a Statewide Enforcement Push
Special agents with North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement operate under the state Department of Public Safety and hold primary statewide jurisdiction to inspect ABC-permitted venues, enforce liquor and drug statutes, and recommend administrative permit suspensions, conducting both undercover probes and routine regulatory inspections. Bar Latino's suspension arrives amid a broader wave of ALE activity at North Carolina nightlife venues, including a Durham raid last month that Hoodline covered in Durham Speakeasy Bust Nets Six Arrests, and an earlier joint operation detailed in Hoodline's coverage of a Charlotte bourbon investigation.
Specific details of the underlying criminal investigation at Bar Latino have not been disclosed by ALE, and officials have not said when the case might move to a hearing before the Office of Administrative Hearings. For now, the bar's permits remain suspended, and police say they will share updates as the investigation develops.
