The New York Attorney General’s office has announced that 13 individuals have recently been indicted in a Brooklyn court on charges that are related to the operation of an illegal and allegedly Mafia associated online sports betting enterprise that was based in Costa Rica.
It was also revealed by the office that the indictment follows a large-scale investigation and close scrutiny of the ring, which included the use of wiretapping.
The 13 individuals who were arrested in this case range from between 46 and 76 years old, and the offending site was 4Spades.org, a website hosted in Cosa Rica.
According to investigators, the site was found to have been generating millions of dollars in illegal US wagers and that to make things even worse, the site also took part in loan sharking that saw players being granted loans with extremely heavy interest rates. It was further revealed that if a player was unable to repay the loan granted, they would in all probability have faced heavy consequences from the mafia which included physical torture.
All thirteen defendants appeared before Judge Danny Chun in a Brooklyn courtroom and pleaded not guilty to the indictment.
The leader of the illegal ring is currently believed to be Salvatore De Meo, an individual who is already a fugitive from justice and facing unrelated criminal charges. De Meo was bonded out of jail by posting 10% of his $300,000 bail after his legal representative pleaded with the Judge that he was suffering from a health problem.
