Exclusive: BSO Busts Several Alleged Illegal Gambling Operations In County – CBS Miami

June 1, 2017 11:30 PM By Carey Codd

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BROWARD (CBSMiami) Illegal bets, tons of cash, several arrests and a couple of firearms thats what CBS4 News cameras saw Thursday night during a ride along with the Broward Sheriffs Office as they continued efforts to bust up a major illegal gambling operation in the county.

Four people are accused of keeping a gambling house and bookmaking and investigators with BSO said this case is more than a year in the making and stretches from the Dominican Republic through South Florida and into New York.

Just after 6 p.m., deputies and SWAT members descended on five different locations in northern Broward County.

Sgt. Dan Fitzpatrick walked us through several alleged illegal gambling operations. One in Pompano Beach had stacks of cash, a walk up window, a computer and lots of betting slips.

Youll receive a computer generated ticket just like this for your bet, Fitzpatrick showed us. He took Major League Baseball. He took Los Angeles.

BSO arrested a guy for running the operation. He didnt want to talk to CBS4 News.

Fitzpatrick said these types of gambling operations are becoming more prolific in the county and because its a cash-based business generally located in high crime areas, theres a high potential for violence.

Its ripe for armed robberies, shootings, which weve had several of, he explained. These places will get taken down. We had one about two minutes away from here taken down by three guys with AK-47s.

At the location, Fitzpatrick said someone inside dropped a Glock.

When the SWAT team was making entry into the location, somebody threw down a firearm right away, Fitzpatrick said.

A few blocks away in Deerfield, BSO busted three businesses in a shopping plaza on Sample Road. At one business that appeared to be a clothing store in the front, Fitzpatrick said theres a gambling operation in the back.

Based on our surveillance, if they sell any clothes at all, its very seldom, he said. We have never seen them sell any clothing.

The woman working at the store wasnt happy.

They say you were taking illegal sports bets here, a reporter asked her.

I dont want to talk about it, please, she said.

At another business, BSO showed us the gambling website open and running.

BSO hopes the busts might mean less violence on our streets.

Its just a matter of time before we have a homicide and were trying to prevent that obviously by eliminating these places, he said.

So far, BSO says theyve seized about half a million dollars in this yearlong investigation.

Investigators said theyre also going after the higher ups in this organization and they expect to take them down soon on racketeering charges.

Carey Codd is a General Assignment Reporter for CBS4 News and joined the News Team in 2005. He has covered a range of stories from cops to courts, foreclosures to features. In the past decade, Carey has covered Hurricane Katrina from New Orle...

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Exclusive: BSO Busts Several Alleged Illegal Gambling Operations In County - CBS Miami