Two dozen charged in Midwest gambling and drug ring

[discocrisco01]

Source: Reuters

Twenty-four people were charged Thursday with federal drug trafficking and gambling offenses in a ring that stretched from the Pacific Northwest to Minnesota, Milwaukee and northern Illinois.

Following a year-long investigation, the defendants, most of Vietnamese descent, were charged with conspiring to possess with intent to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, and 13 were accused with operating an illegal gambling business, said U.S. Attorney James Santelle.

Hundreds of pounds of marijuana were transported by couriers from Vancouver, B.C. and Seattle to Minnesota, southeast Wisconsin and northern Illinois, Santelle said. The couriers also transported bulk cash and illegal gambling proceeds back to the marijuana suppliers in the Pacific Northwest, he said.

Odds on sporting events were sent via text message, and bets were placed just as quickly, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Sanders, who is prosecuting the case.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/03/us-hmong-ring-wisconsin-idUSTRE75206820110603?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

[SoapBox]

1. What? Gambling and DRUGS in America's Heartland?!

...hilarious...

Where are all those holy and pious church types, whilst this was going on.

Oh ya...heads in the sand.

[sybylla]

2. Note that it says the offenders are primarily of "Vietnamese descent."

My bet is that means this happened in the Hmong communities - very tightly connected and very much separate from American culture.

You probably won't find holy and pious Midwest church types commenting on this except to make some self-righteous racist remarks shamefully characterizing all Hmong.