Why now, and why these specific 5 restaurants?

It definitely feels like a pretext for something else going on, who knows what -- whether it's a police racket or something shady going on in the restaurants they're sending a warning about.

This is what these obscure, rarely-enforced laws seem to exist for in the first place.

If the police were really interested in enforcement over this, they'd send a letter to every restaurant, bar, and cafe owner in the country that they have 3 months to comply and it will become part of regular inspections.

Targeting 5 individual restaurants (through arrests) is definitely not about simply enforcing this regulation.

Note: I'm NOT defending this as a legitimate law enforcement tactic. Just describing what seems to be happening.