A Passaic County sheriff has recently announced that five people were arrested in the city of Paterson, New Jersey. The accusation was for illegal gambling in three locations in the city. After the police raid, over $5,000 were confiscated from the premises.
Paterson is the third most populated city in New Jersey with little over 150,000 citizens. It is the second-highest populated city, and has the second largest Muslim population in the United States.
The sheriff in charge of the investigation, Mr. Berdnik, shared that two of the locations where the illegal gambling was done – Mini Mart and First Stop Mini Mart, have accepted bets for the Dominican Lottery.
As many of the customers of the Mini Marts were immigrants from the Dominican Republic, they preferred to bet on the Dominican Lottery, which is illegal, instead of on US-based lottery. The betting was accepted at the shop, and registered on the Dominican website through a computer and receipts were printed out.
The sheriff explained that “by illegally taking bets on the Dominican Lottery, the suspects were preying on individuals who, because of their immigration status, did not feel comfortable using the New Jersey State Lottery system.”
Mr. Berdnik further stated that the two owners the Mini Mart, age forty-seven and forty-nine, were charged on a number of gambling offences.
The third owner, Dmonigo Urena, 48, was accused of promoting gambling and possessing devices to process and advertise illegal gambling.
Another illegal betting location was found in Tire Road LLC. Customers would go in a room at the facility, where they bet on sport events which were recorded on a PC and receipts were printed out and given to the wagers.
The Tire Road LLC is located on the Railroad Avenue and is owned by Ariel Deleon and Freddie Castro. A court proceeding was filed against them on a number of gambling offenses. The Sheriff confirmed in a statement that there were more than $5,000 confiscated when the police raids were executed last Thursday.
The amount of money isn’t considerable because the “majority of the money was removed from the locations at various times of the day, so large amounts of money weren’t stored there,” Berdnik explained, despite the fact that bets were placed each day at the locations.
The Paterson city authorities have announced that four of the accused were let go until the local court hearing. As to the fifth suspect, Jose C. Colon, he is still in custody due to another case, unrelated to the illegal betting.
Sheriff Berdnik continued by explaining that the illegal gambling case is one of many prosecutions and police raids, which were executed in Paterson and other cities of the country as part of a major initiative against criminal offences such as drug selling and prostitution. He was firmly behind his statement that “illegal gambling, like narcotics and prostitution and many other types of criminal activity, diminish the quality of life of the residents of the community.”
