30M betting ring in a sling

[Louis Cypher]

By MICHELE McPHEE
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF


Luck ran out yesterday for a $30 million-a-year numbers operation that called itself The Corporation and used mom-and-pop stores throughout the city as betting parlors, law enforcement officials said.
An early morning roundup by the NYPD and Brooklyn prosecutors, in a sting investigators dubbed Operation Losing Bet, netted 35 arrests, more than $200,000, two defaced handguns and reams of scrawled bets, officials said.

Investigators raided 29 stores in Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn and New Jersey, including florists and beauty parlors.

"These criminals had established footholds all across the city and were using neighborhood shops as fronts for their illegal gambling enterprise," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said he will sock ringleaders with a $3.4 million lawsuit and charge the group with enterprise corruption.

The investigation into The Corporation began a year ago, when detectives were tipped to several illegal gambling locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

The group's alleged leader, Luis Perez of Manalapan, N.J., ran the enterprise from a Bronx apartment, where cops said he had a "cash stash," authorities said.

Cops seized more than $50,000 in a safe there yesterday, Kelly said.

Originally published on June 6, 2003

[GMON]

They ain't found nothing yet, believe me.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

[Oddessa]

The daily number is probably the biggest earning racket in NY and always will be. While it appears to be like big pinch, those numbers get run from NYC allthe way up RT 87 to Albany daily. The guy that brought me into this bizness , that has recently passed away, used to tell me stories anbout his number running days.


They were told 1x that they needed to get pinched and were pre informed. My friend got off at the Newburgh NY exit off RT 87 1x with bunk numbers and roughly 10k, where they were waiting. The dumb SOB's actually missed his car at the toll booth. He had to get on RT 32, backtrack North and get back on the Thruway at Exit 17 so they could grab him in Newburgh again. LOL. Sometimes you can pass an elephant in front of these guys when they are on their donut break. Thats the kind of luck I needed when i wasn't expecting to get grabbed. Oh well. God bless his soul.

[stevo]

Thats too funny Joey. Missed him the first time and he has to double back.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

That scene should be in a movie about those times.

[Oddessa]

I swear to god it's a true story. Thats why I threw in the details. Unless its like some urban 'numbers' myth that he threw me for my entertainment. But I don't think so. It's hard to make stuff like that up. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[scott]

Odessa, we used to get tipped off before a raid sometimes also, but that's the funniest story I've ever heard , still laughing.
Thanx....ScottyS