Another NY Sports Betting Bust

[jetset]

NEW YORK STATE BUSTS ANOTHER ONLINE SPORTS BETTING RING

Not much festive cheer for these sports betting operators

Associated Press reports that law enforcement authorities in the Suffolk County of New York State were active last month in the run-up to the festive season, busting an Internet gambling ring involving an unidentified Costa Rican operator and in the process uncovering a drug network as well.

In enforcement activity, 17 arrests were made and a million dollars in "illegal" funds seized, the District Attorney for Suffolk County Thomas Spota revealed this week.

Fourteen people were arrested on charges of promoting gambling, and three were arrested on charges of conspiracy to possess marijuana.

Spota said that surveillance activities had established that the gambling ring took in an average of $165 000 a week in sports bets and was focused on professional and collegiate sports with electronic transfers to Costa Rica, generating some $8.6 million a year.

The drug bust was generated by the gambling surveillance exercise. Four men were trying to buy 100 pounds of pot for $300 000 in California when the plot was thwarted, investigators said.

Police started arresting the 16 men and one woman last month. All have been released and are scheduled to be arraigned in March.

One man, an attorney from Freeport, has eluded arrest on a conspiracy charge and was being sought, prosecutors said.

Suffolk County is located in the U.S. state of New York and has a population of a million and a half people. It was named for the county of Suffolk in England, from which its earliest settlers came. The county seat is Riverhead, though many county offices are in Hauppauge on the west side of the county where most of the population lives.

Suffolk and Nassau counties together are generally referred to as "Long Island" by area residents — as distinct from the New York City boroughs of Queens (Queens County) and Brooklyn (Kings County), which physically make up the island's westernmost end.

Suffolk County is the easternmost county in New York State and the New York Metropolitan Area.