Police bust gambling ring that operated out of stores in the Bronx and city

[clevfan]

Police bust gambling ring that operated out of stores in the BX and city
07/28/04) THE BRONX - A two-year investigation into a gambling ring has landed seven people, who are all related by blood or marriage, behind bars.
Police say 63-year-old Nelson Perez and his 40-year-old son Nelson Perez Jr. were the kingpins behind an illegal gambling ring. According to police, the business brought in almost $5 million a year. They say the operation was run out of the back rooms of stores and bodegas in the Bronx and city.

The Bronx district attorney says police seized more than $100,000, six vehicles and two guns. The defendants face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.


see webpage for video

[BuzzRavanaugh]

Devil- Are you okay??

sportman- This isn't you, I am sure but check in??

[TTinCO]

$5 mil a year? Son of a......

[shoebox]

WOW, I am shocked to say the least, I played with those guys on a regular basis when I was in College and High School. They operated a cash only walk up business inside of all corner stores in Washington Heights and Inwood Heights. They had the best buisness ever, the biggest suckers in the world, they even did daily numbers out of there, my guy posted lines at 12 noon est and never moved a line ever, handed out the sheets and you bet from the sheet. I gotta call tomarrow and see if anyone is still open, the had at least 25 store fronts, maybe more!

[AnotherBadBeat]

I remember you telling me about them , when we first met ................

[Total Square]

They operated a cash only walk up business inside of all corner stores in Washington Heights and Inwood Heights.

bet at one window...and pick up a few bags at the next

I'm good.

[clevfan]

NY TIMES ARTICLE:

July 29, 2004
7 Accused of Running Citywide Betting Ring
By ALAN FEUER

In the courthouse, prosecutors call it by a formal name: the mutuel race horse policy.

In the bodega, however, it has nicknames: policy, the number, bolita, 3-5-7.

The rules are simple - for as little as a dime, the bettor places a wager on a number that is based on the total amount bet at the local racetrack. The payoffs for the winners are large - sometimes as much as 600 to 1.

The policy rackets have been operating in New York practically since gamblers learned to count. Over the years, this form of storefront wagering has served as something of a shadow Lotto for thousands of New Yorkers who would rather enjoy better odds than the myriad legitimate games offer - not to mention take their winnings home tax-free.

Yesterday, the district attorney in the Bronx unsealed a 30-page indictment aimed at what he called "the largest policy ring we've seen in decades." A father and son, Nelson A. Perez and Nelson Perez, were charged, along with five members of their extended family, with running the ring, which the prosecutor said operated out of more than 100 storefront shops and earned as much as $5 million a year.

"Although it appears to be a familial unit that ran this ring," Robert T. Johnson, the district attorney, said, "it was by no means a mom-and-pop operation."

The Perezes were accused of running the ring from an apartment house in the Inwood section of Manhattan, where they oversaw operations at a vast network of hair salons, bodegas, coin laundries and grocery stores that took in as much $400,000 in cash bets every month, investigators said. It was a well-run, sophisticated citywide operation, the investigators said, in which employees were paid a fixed salary and given set vacations by the boss. The businesses cooperated in the numbers operation, officials said, and 17 low-level members of the ring were also indicted.

To keep track of the flow of money and the numbers being bet, the Perezes set up "policy banks" - complete with telephones and fax machines - near their main office, at 4761 Broadway, investigators said. Each bank had a manager, they said, who kept in touch with storefront shops by way of runners who, in turn, would shuttle back and forth, carrying policy slips with bettors' numbers.

According to the indictment, the storefront parlors operated across the city, but mostly in Brooklyn.

Despite the size and scope of the ring, it remained almost invisible, investigators said, operating underneath the radar of the law until a tipster called the New York Police Department to complain two years ago.

"They melted into the community," said Chief Douglas Ziegler, who runs the department's Organized Crime Control Bureau. "No one knew about them except the people in the community."

After receiving the tip, Mr. Johnson said, the Bronx Vice Enforcement Squad went into action, secretly following a runner as he went about his daily rounds. Wiretaps followed, he said. Eventually, undercover agents were sent in to place bets.

Although numbers rackets have long flourished in the New York underworld, the Perez family used a version of the game called bolita, a Spanish term for "little ball," investigators said. It was introduced in New York in the 1960's, they said, by Jose Battle, a vice officer from Havana who switched sides in the United States and built an empire on the game.

In this version, investigators said, two three-digit numbers are generated every day. A nightly number is derived from the total amount bet, or handle, at Yonkers Raceway; a daily number came from whatever track was featured in The Daily News that morning.

The first digit of each three-digit bolita number is the last digit of the total handle for the first three winning horses in the first three races at whichever track is chosen. The second digit is the last number of the total handle for the first three horses in the first five races. The final digit is the last number of the total handle for the first three horses in the first seven races.

The game, for just that reason, was also known as 3-5-7.

"It was very popular," said Detective Eddie Brosnan of the Bronx Vice Enforcement Squad. "Tens of thousands of people were betting every week."

Nelson A. Perez, 63, owns a house in Valley Cottage, in Rockland County. His son, Nelson, 40, lives nearby, in New City, investigators said.

Griselda Rosario, 48, who lived with the elder Mr. Perez, was charged in the indictment with managing one of the policy banks. Mariana Aguilar, 49, the girlfriend of the younger Mr. Perez, was charged as well with managing a bank.

The men charged with being runners - Joel Contreras, 34, of North Bergen, N.J.; Nelson Rosario, Jr., 24, of Manhattan; and Luis Rosario, 23, of the Bronx - are also related to members of the ring. Mr. Contreras is the nephew of the elder Perez, investigators said. The Rosarios, they said, are Ms. Rosario's sons.

Five of the defendants were arraigned yesterday in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, said Steven Reed, a spokesman for the Bronx district attorney's office. Nelson Perez and Louis Rosario are expected to be arraigned today, he said.

At 25 Hillside Avenue, which prosecutors said served as a policy bank, Mayra Martinez, 36, said that though she was surprised that an illegal gambling operation was based in the building, she was not surprised that people played the numbers.

"Everyone plays the numbers," Ms. Martinez said. "There's a guy who sells numbers right outside, from his car. He's out there every day."

[Total Square]

gonna be a lot of bummed out players

I'm bummed just reading about it.