According to reports from Associated Press, New York’s Suffolk County police intensified their efforts, over the holiday season, at busting an online gambling ring with ties to an unidentified Costa Rican operator and, in the process, uncovered a drug network as well.

The Suffolk County District Attorney, Thomas Spota, reported that 17 arrests were made and a million dollars in illegal funds were seized during the bust.  Fourteen of the seventeen people arrested were charged with promoting illegal gambling and three of those arrested were charged with conspiracy to possess marijuana.

Spota said that his office was able to determine, from surveillance activities, that the gambling ring took in an average of $165,000 a week on sports bets that focused primarily on collegiate and professional sports.  Electronic transfers from the online gambling ring to Costa Rica generated about 8.6 million dollars per year.

The drug bust was also a result of the surveillance activities, which uncovered four men trying to buy 100 pounds of pot for $300,000 in California.  Investigators were able to thwart the drug deal before it took place.

Of the 17 arrested, 16 were men and one was a woman.  Police began arresting them last month but all of them have since been released.  They are scheduled for arraignment in March.  One man, however, an attorney, has thus far managed to elude arrest and is still be sought on conspiracy charges by the police.

Suffolk County is located in New York State and has a population of one and a half million.  It was named for the county of Suffolk in England, from where its original settlers came.  Although many county offices are located in Hauppauge on the west side of the county, the county seat is Riverhead.  The majority of the Suffolk County population resides in Hauppauge.

Suffolk and Nassau counties together make up what Americans generally refer to as “Long Island”.  Long Island is distinct from Brooklyn (of Kings County) and Queens (of Queens County), the two New Your City boroughs that physically make up the island’s westernmost end.  Suffolk County is in the New York Metropolitan Area and is the easternmost county in New York State.

Posted on: January 16, 2007

Add This Gambling Article To:
Del.icio.us	Digg	Google	Spurl
Furl	Simpy	Y! MyWeb

Back to January 2007's archive
Back to latest News