SAN JOSE — Dozens of San Jose police officers, FBI agents and other local cops swarmed Vietnamese cafes in East San Jose on Tuesday evening, in what is believed to be the city’s largest-ever crackdown on illegal video gambling machines, authorities said.
As part of “Operation Omni,” search warrants were simultaneously served at 11 locations starting about 6 p.m. Tuesday. That capped a year and a half of investigations revolving around not only the illicit gambling facilitated by the video machines, but “dozens of cases of violence” linked to territorial power struggles over the money.
At least one homicide may be linked to this violence, said Lt. Mike Sullivan, commander of the San Jose police vice unit.
“People are seriously injuring people in and around the establishments, and we believe it’s tied to the gaming,” Sullivan said. “Everything from serious violence to people becoming addicted to gambling. It’s almost at epidemic levels.”
Authorities seized more than 100 machines from the array of businesses. They detained dozens of people but ultimately made no arrests connected to the illegal gaming.
Vice Sgt. Todd Trayer and a counterpart from the FBI’s San Jose office were reviewing a string of shootings and stabbings connected to the cafes in November 2013 when they saw there was a pattern and laid out the groundwork for a joint investigation that led to Tuesday’s raids.
“There was a huge uptick in violence related to these cafes and bars. And we noticed that one of the connecting dots was that they had (gaming) machines in them,” Trayer said.
The businesses had anywhere between three and 10 machines, sometimes operating out in the open. Each machine pulled in between $1,000 and $5,000 a week.
Eight such machines were confiscated by FBI agents at the Xinh Xinh Café near Tully Road and McLaughlin Avenue. Nearly 20 patrons and employees were detained, many with zip ties, before they were eventually released.
SJPD spokeswoman Sgt. Heather Randol said police and the FBI may conduct follow-up investigations with some of the people detained. Authorities may also speak with the business owners, many of whom were not on site for Tuesday’s raids.
The operation Tuesday rattled surprised patrons and employees.
“I was shocked,” said a female waitress at Xinh Xinh who asked not to be named out of privacy concerns. “They just barged in.”
She did, however, acknowledge the presence of the video gambling machines, which were operating in plain view inside the cafe.
A patron at the 168 Café, on Story Road near Lucretia Avenue, objected to what he called heavy-handedness by police as they entered the business.
“They rushed into the store, they’re yelling, pulling guns on customers, tie-wrapping us,” said Vu Nguyen, a 40-year-old San Jose resident.
Nguyen said he was unaware of gambling at the cafe.
“I’m playing pool with friends, and I turned around and have two shotguns pointed at me,” he said. “What did I do wrong?”
Participants in Tuesday’s operation also included SJPD’s bureau of investigations and special-operations division as well as Santa Clara police and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.
The investigation began in the wake of the conclusion of a similar case, also in November 2013, where the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency and SJPD served warrants at multiple San Jose locations to break up a sizable illegal gambling ring run out of coffee shops. Nine people were indicted in federal court in that case. As in that case, the alleged gambling operations revealed Tuesday have suspected ties to organized crime.
Other examples of illegal video gambling have surfaced in the city this year. In late February, San Jose police and Santa Clara police served search warrants on four locations in San Jose to root out gaming machines, leading to 27 arrests in San Jose and Modesto.
In January, a 911 call reporting an assault led to the discovery of a garage-based casino at a home on South Capitol Avenue. In that instance, officers responding to the assault call saw in plain view gaming machines, narcotics and large amounts of cash, and arrested eight people.
Contact Robert Salonga at 408-920-5002. Follow him at Twitter.com/robertsalonga.
SAN JOSE GAMBLING MACHINE RAIDS
On Tuesday evening, San Jose police and the FBI led a coordinated series of raids on 11 Vietnamese cafes suspected of housing illegal video gambling machines that authorities say generated thousands of dollars a week. The locations are listed below.
