Apr.10, 2010, 6:23 am, Source: ICE

NEW YORK – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, New York and New Jersey assisted the New York Police Department in dismantling a multi-state Internet gambling operation.

ICE agents with the El Dorado Task Force Asset Identification and Removal Group in New York arrested nine suspects and seized 11 bank accounts and cash totaling more than $400,000. The people arrested allegedly used the bank accounts to move and store gambling proceeds. They face state charges of enterprise corruption, promoting gambling and money laundering.

ICE agents and officers arrested a total of 38 people in Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, New York, New Jersey and Nevada on charges of operating two highly sophisticated illegal sport gambling enterprises stretching from Queens, N.Y. to Costa Rica.

“The seizures made by ICE today destroy the backbone of this criminal organization, said James T. Hayes, Jr., special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in New York. “We remain committed to working with law enforcement at every level to ensure there is no reward, or profit, for those individuals and organizations who seek to engage in systematic criminal activity as a business model.”

“The defendants are accused of being involved in two distinct nationwide gambling rings that booked nearly $178 million in wagers over a 32-month period on professional and college basketball and football, professional baseball and hockey and other sporting events,” said Richard A. Brown, Queens County district attorney. “In carrying out their alleged gambling operations, the defendants used sports betting websites – which are literally computerized betting sheets accessible both online and via an “800″ toll-free telephone number – thereby allowing them to manage numerous gambling accounts, out of which criminal proceeds were collected and distributed throughout the United States.”

“Illegal gambling and money laundering are not victimless crimes. The proceeds from illegal sports betting are used to fuel organized crime and support harmful criminal enterprises,” said Raymond W. Kelly, police commissioner City of New York. “Because of today’s arrests the very same illegal gambling outfit that had spread its reach from Queens to Nevada will now be confined to a significantly smaller space.”

The two enterprise corruption indictments filed in Queens County Supreme Court charge that the gambling rings promoted illegal sports betting in Queens County and elsewhere and that the defendants were involved in non-traditional computerized wire rooms in Costa Rica.

Eighteen of the defendants are also being sued civilly and have been named as respondents in a $178 million civil forfeiture action filed in Queens Supreme Court by the District Attorney’s Special Proceedings Bureau, which alleges that they engaged in criminal enterprises that promoted illegal gambling activities and generated illegal wages.

The enterprises allegedly handled thousands of wagers each month that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in monthly gross revenue or approximately $178 million between July 2007 and March 2010.