Wednesday, November 29, 2006

A contingent of nearly a dozen New York City police offers arrived in Miami
Beach Monday morning to transfer several defendants being held in an "online
gambling" bust back to New York for a Tuesday arraignment. The sophisticated
Internet-based gambling scheme took in $3.3 billion in cash wagers from
40,000 bettors nationwide since 2004, authorities said. They announced
charges against James Giordano, 26 other defendants and three companies,
including one in Hollywood and another in Davie. ''This is the largest
illegal gambling operation we have ever encountered,'' said New York Police
Commissioner Raymond Kelly two weeks ago when the indictment was made
public. ``It rivals casinos for the amount of betting.'' Armed with arrest
and search warrants, law enforcement climbed over Giordano's four-foot wall
and knocked on his front door. They arrested him and he remained in a Miami
prison awaiting transport to New York.
Gambling911.com sources located the plain clothed New York City police
officers at Miami Beach's famed Clevelander bar at around 1:30 pm Monday
afternoon. One of the officers was seen scaring off a Boston Red Sox fan
and the poor misguided sap's girlfriend. At the bar, officers met up with a
female FBI agent based out of Miami. She was not involved in the case. "The
Clevelander was like CSI New York Meets CSI Miami...but the officers brought
with them bad weather from the Northeast. The forecast called for clear
skies Monday but it rained the entire time the NYPD was at the Clevelander,"
our source disclosed.