A Los Angeles grocery chain entrepreneur ran a lucrative criminal enterprise, orchestrating murders, bribing city officials, extorting customers and exploiting illegal immigrants, according to a federal racketeering indictment unsealed Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reports.

George Torres, 50, who owns the Numero Uno grocery stores scattered throughout low-income parts of Los Angeles County, was arrested Tuesday driving away from his home in Arcadia and appeared in federal court Wednesday.

Parts of the 59-count indictment against him read like a Mario Puzo novel: Torres, huddled in a meat locker in a warehouse south of downtown Los Angeles, ordered a hit on a drug dealer who had crossed him. He had his security guards shake down suspected shoplifters for cash. He trafficked in stolen produce and meat , and a load of Tang, the space-age drink powder.

“He used the drug traffickers as muscle,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Timothy J. Searight. “He would have them do his dirty work.”

Torres is charged with racketeering, violence in aid of racketeering, conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants and tax, wire and mail fraud as part of a criminal scheme that netted an estimated $109 million.

Seven others are named in the conspiracy: his brother Manuel, 53; his son Steven, 26; and two former Los Angeles city area planning commissioners, George Luk, 58, of Beverly Hills, and Steve Carmona, 39, of Pico Rivera.

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