ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A former hotel manager in southeast Albuquerque will serve nearly five years in prison for allowing the hotel to become a drug den. Federal authorities say 44-year-old Kamal Bhula profited from a kickback scheme at the Best Choice Inn between 2018 and 2019. The feds say the scheme required drug traffickers to pay a fee if they wanted to use the hotel as a sanctuary.
Officials say Bhula faces a likely deportation to South Africa due to the conviction. Co-defendants Pragneshkumar Patel and Jonathan Craft were sentenced last month for their parts in the scheme. They’re sentenced to 70 and 30 months in prison respectively.
