Federal authorities indicted 18 people today on charges of conspiracy, racketeering, and gambling.
The FBI arrested 14 people, mostly from San Diego and Los Angeles. Foreign law enforcement agents assisted the FBI in arresting accused ringleader Erik Portocarrero in Oslo. Jan Harald Portocarrero and his brother Erik are the alleged ringleaders of Macho Sports, a company based in Peru that was used as a cover for the gambling racket.
The government accuses members of the gambling ring of “operat[ing] its headquarters in Lima, Peru, and located the physical platform for its Internet operations outside the United States [to avoid detection] in an indictment filed in the United States District Court of Southern California.
Federal agents allege that the brothers used the internet and toll free phone numbers to accept millions of dollars in gambling bets from customers over the last decade. Those arrested are also accused of using intimidation, threats, and violence to make people pay.
“Criminal enterprises like Macho Sports and their U.S.-based ‘bookmakers’ prey on the gambling addictions of their betting customers, wreaking havoc on people’s lives and the lives of family members[,]” FBI Special Agent in Charge Daphne Hearn said
in a press release .