Pollo Campiña
 | |
| Private | |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Fate | Liquidated, with assets seized by the Creeperian government |
| Founded | 23 June 1994 |
| Founders | |
| Defunct | 12 March 2018 |
| Headquarters | La'Victoria, San Luís, Creeperopolis |
Number of locations | 114 (2017) |
Area served | Central Creeperopolis |
Key people |
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| Products | Fried chicken, grilled chicken, boiled chicken, chicken bowls, chicken sandwiches, chicken wings |
| Revenue |  ₡35.32 billion colóns (2017) |
| ₡12.41 billion colóns (2017) | |
Number of employees | 11,421 (2017) |
| Website | pollocampina.com.cr |
Pollo Campiña (literally "Countryside Chicken") was a Creeperian fast-food restaurant which specialized in chicken-related products. The restaurant chain was established in 1994 by Martín Ureña Piñon and Carlos Dávalos Obregón, who served as owner and CEO respectively, as a competitor to both Pollo Campero and Pollo Campestre, which then held a duopoly on fast-foot chicken restaurants in Creeperopolis.
In 2018, after a lengthy investigation into the company by the Creeperian government, Ureña Piñon and Dávalos Obregón were arrested by the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), which determined that Pollo Campiña was a front company to launder money obtained through drug and arms trafficking operations. The government also determined that the two had affiliations with Mara Salvatrucha, which they allowed to use their facilities to produce and store cocaine.
Contents
Corporate history
Establishment
Pollo Campiña was founded by Martín Ureña Piñon and Carlos Dávalos Obregón on 23 June 1994. Ureña Piñon was the former mayor of La'Victoria, serving from 1983 to 1994, and Dávalos Obregón was the former minister of internal affairs of San Luís, serving from 1985 to 1994. Ureña Piñon served as the company's owner while Dávalos Obregón served as its CEO, although both held an equal say in the management of the company.
Both Ureña Piñon and Dávalos Obregón resigned from their government positions in order to focus on the operations the company. Their primary goal of fracturing the duopoly of Pollo Campero and Pollo Campestre over fast-food chicken restaurants. Pollo Campero held a hegemony in southern Creeperopolis, while Pollo Campestre dominated in northern Creeperopolis, and due to that, Pollo Campiña had its locations primarily located in central Creeperopolis, where both companies had locations in order to disrupt both of their operations. In an interview in 1997, Ureña Piñon stated that the goal of the chain was to "give central Creeperans a chicken chain identity; northerners are Campestiros, southerners are Camperosos, so centrists will be Campiñeros."
Operations
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The chain's first location opened in La'Victoria, the largest city in the department San Luís, on 1 December 1994. The second restaurant opened only one week later on 7 December 1994 in San Luís, the department's capital city. Pollo Campiña was advertized as the "central choice" for chicken, and by the end of the year, three more locations were opened, another in La'Victoria, one in Tampulaz, and one in Sechakan. By the end of 1995, the chain opened 34 more locations, most notably in Quetgoza and Joyagua in San Luís, Jucuaguel, Teguracoa, and Adolfosburg in Adolfosburg, and Serrada del Sur in San Salvador.
In 2001, Pollo Campiña reportedly was outcompeting Pollo Campero and Pollo Campestre in the departments of San Luís and Adolfosburg, and by that same year, the chain had expanded to four more departments: La'Libertad del Norte, La'Libertad del Sur, La'Unión, and Santa Ana. The chain's largest location was opened in La'Victoria in 2002. Pollo Campiña acquired the Jakiz-based chain Pollo de la'Asada in 2004 for ₡9.1 billion colóns, acquiring the chain before Pollo Campero was able to. The acquisition gained Pollo Campiña 20 new locations and gaining significant influence in a department which was dominated by Pollo Campero. The company unveiled a new logo in 2007. In 2012, the first two locations in Atlántida were opened.
Illegal activities
From the beginning of the company's existence, its existence was used as simply a front to launder money earned from illicit activities undertaken by Ureña Piñon and Dávalos Obregón. In 1993, both men got involved with the illegal activities of Mara Salvatrucha (MS), the largest criminal gang and paramilitary group in the country, and to further support the group's activities, both men founded Pollo Campiña.
The first few restaurants opened were legitimate businesses to not arouse any suspicions, but beginning in 1996, some of the restaurants began to be transformed into cocaine production facilities, especially the locations in San Luís and later Santa Ana. Along with cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine were also produced at some locations. The largest location which was opened in 2002 was the primary hub of cocaine production, storage, and transportation to distribution centers.
Pollo Campiña paid members of Mara Salvatrucha to operate as a sort of paramilitary group for the company. Referred to as "Los'Polleros," the paramilitary distributed illegal drugs produced at locations, transported the drugs to various locations, and killed individuals who attempted to disrupt the company's illegal activities. On report accounted how six members of Los'Zetas were kidnapped by Los'Polleros, taken to a location in Denilla, and tortured to death for stealing 60 pounds of cocaine from a Pollo Campiña truck. Another report stated that Alfonso Herrera Pérez, the son-in-law of Dávalos Obregón, was kidnapped by Los'Polleros in 2014 as both Ureña Piñon and Dávalos Obregón believed that he was going to inform the Creeperian government about the illegal activities of the company. His disappearance case was not solved until 2018 when Pollo Campiña was forcefully closed by the Creeperian government.
Government investigation and liquidation
In 2015, Pollo Campiña controversially opened a location in Tuxtla Martínez, Zapatista, considered to be the core of Pollo Campero's sphere of influence. Known as the "Zapatistan Venture," on 5 July 2017, the location was the target of a car bomb attack, resulting in 18 deaths and 52 injuries. The Creeperian National Police (PNC) arrived at the location to investigate the car bombing, but the manager of the location insisted to the police that they do not enter the restaurant. Óscar Leyzaola Guzmán, the chief of police of Tuxtla Martínez, ordered the police to enter the restaurant as a part of the investigation into the car bombing. The police forcefully entered the restaurant, and during the investigation, police officers uncovered a secret entrance in the back of the restaurant which led to an underground storage facility. Although it was empty, investigators believed that it was recently emptied in the aftermath of the car bombing, and after further investigation of the facility, trace amounts of cocaine were discovered all around the facility.
Leyzaola Guzmán ordered the arrest of all of the restaurant's employees and informed the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) of the discovery, believing that this was a part of a wider conspiracy within the company. In early-2018, DINA agents forcefully accessed various Pollo Campiña locations across the country, and in many of them, the agents uncovered various cocaine production labs and storage facilities, with some of the encounters resulting in shootouts between the agents and workers in the labs and facilities. Upon the revelations of the labs and facilities, Augusto Cabañeras Gutiérrez ordered the arrests of Ureña Piñon and Dávalos Obregón.
Ureña Piñon was arrested by the DINA on 11 March 2018 at his mansion outside of La'Victoria, and Dávalos Obregón was arrested the following day after a shootout with Los'Polleros in Teguracoa as he was attempting to evade arrest. Upon the arrest of both men, the DINA announced the cessation of all activities of Pollo Campiña, declaring that all locations are officially considered to be crime scenes under investigation. All locations were seized by the government and the restaurant was effectively liquidated, ceasing to exist.
Legal proceedings
Attempts to reopen
The closure of Pollo Campiña caused some uproar among consumers, who enjoyed the food provided by the restaurant or liked having a "central Creeperian chicken chain" restaurant. During the investigation, Pollo Campero and Pollo Campestre petitioned the Creeperian government to sell them the confiscated locations upon them no longer being crime scenes as Pollo Campiña had negatively affected both of their businesses in the areas where locations were opened.
