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By The Associated Press | Friday, August 22, 2003 | (No comments posted.)
CHICAGO -- Federal authorities say they have broken up an alleged Chinatown gambling parlor whose operators used threats and violence to collect debts.
Six people were arrested when FBI and IRS agents armed with search warrants raided five locations in the Chinatown area, seizing cash and suspected gambling and extortion records and impounding three luxury automobiles.
Among those arrested was the ring's alleged leader, Dong Jin Chen, 41, of Chicago and his brother, Jeff Moon Chen, 33, of Quincy, Mass., authorities said Wednesday. The brother allegedly was trying to establish a similar operation in the Boston area.
The gambling and extortion charges against the men allege that since about 1998, Dong Jin Chen made as much as $10,000 a night operating gambling parlors where bettors played mahjong and video poker machines. He also made loans at exorbitant interest rates of 5 and 10 percent, according to authorities.
The investigation into Chen's operation has uncovered about 100 debtors who owed him from $500 to $80,000, FBI officials said.
The owner of a Chinese restaurant who owed Chen a $10,000 gambling debt allegedly turned over to Chen an SUV in 1998. The next year, the man turned over the keys to his restaurant after the debt soared to $60,000. Fearful for his and his family's safety, the man fled Chicago, authorities said.
To collect gambling debts, Chen allegedly relied on men affiliated with the Toi Ching street gang.
During the investigation into Chen's activities, code-named Operation Tigershark, authorities said they intercepted hundreds of telephone calls relating to gambling and extortion on a court-authorized wiretap.
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