Bookmaking Crackdown Includes 3 Arrests in O.C.

ANAHEIM — A suspected national bookmaking ring that authorities say took in at least $1 million a week in illegal bets was broken up Sunday by a law enforcement task force that arrested 10 people in three states, including three in Anaheim.

The arrests occurred shortly before the beginning of the first of Sunday’s two National Football League conference championship games, which traditionally generate millions in legal and illegal betting.

A detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, who asked not to be named, said arrests also were also made in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Santa Fe, N.M. The detective said the suspected ring was formerly headquartered in Los Angeles, but moved to New Mexico after LAPD vice officers opened an investigation.

Details of the crackdown were sketchy Sunday, and identities of the three suspects arrested in Anaheim and one in Los Angeles were unavailable. An Anaheim police official said Sunday he was unaware of the arrests in his department’s jurisdiction. The LAPD source familiar with the operation said officers from his department participated in the Anaheim arrests.

Among those arrested in the Santa Fe raid were: James Gordon O’Shea, 34; Barbara Jean Patten, 30; Wallace Nakano, 31; and Michael Joseph McCarthy, 30, all of Los Angeles.

They were expected to be charged with racketeering, commercial gambling and accepting wagers for profit.

The investigation was led by New Mexico law enforcement authorities, who were also assisted by agents from the FBI and IRS.

“This is not an office Super Bowl pool,” said New Mexico Atty. Gen. Tom Udall. “This is a national criminal enterprise attempting to relocate to New Mexico from larger metropolitan areas, and we won’t tolerate it.”

The LAPD detective said the ring was “probably bringing in more than $1 million a week.”

“The investigation originated in Los Angeles County,” he said. “But this ring, like most bookmaking rings, continued to move around to evade the police. We began the investigation some time ago.”

He said that Sunday’s arrests went smoothly and without incident.

Authorities in New Mexico said that search warrants were served at a Santa Fe house that served as the ring’s headquarters and at locations in Anaheim and Los Angeles.

A spokeswoman for Udall said the Southern California locations searched by investigators “are the same book, but they are smaller pieces of the operation.”

New Mexico authorities said the Santa Fe residence allegedly used by the bookmakers had seven telephone lines, which reportedly received more than 14,500 calls from throughout the United States between Oct. 23 and Dec. 9, 1996. They said the telephone bill for that period was more than $6,500.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.