NYPD: 32 rounded up in sweep of Greenwich Village drug and gambling operation

Nearly three dozen suspects were rounded up in a series of pre-dawn raids Friday in connection with what police said was a drug and high-end gambling operation based in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan.

The raids netted 32 suspects who investigators said ran a heroin and cocaine distribution network that worked hand-in-hand with a gambling operation known as “Brick and Mortar” from an area of W. 11 Street and Avenue of the Americas, officials said.

Cops seized $125,000 in cash, two firearms and Xanax and cocaine while executing a total of 19 search warrants around the city, according to NYPD chief of citywide investigations William Aubry. Agents from the federal office of Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also took part in the operation.

The drug operation, which was pulling in sales of at least $10,000 a week, ultimately led investigators to the gambling den, which advertised itself through a web site and which police said screened participants by requiring driver's licenses and work identification.

“What we are today presented is the intersection of two of these addictions in a single organization catering to both, selling heroin and cocaine and by operating an illegal poker house,” said Joseph Tesorerio, chief of special investigations for Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan.

Tesorerio said the probe began as a drug investigation about eight months ago and involved four months of court-ordered surveillance of four of the suspects. An 81-count indictment charged drug trafficking and conspiracy offenses, as well as charges of promoting gambling.

According to investigators, the drug and gambling operation was allegedly run by David Diaz, 52, of New York. The gambling involved a poker house at 446 Avenue of the Americas and an online gambling business that was not included in the charges, officials said.

A woman identified as Geeta Singh, 43, was allegedly working as manager and promoter for the gambling house. Singh, of Atlanta, Georgia, was charged with six counts of promoting gambling.

The defendants were scheduled to be arraigned late Friday in Manhattan State Supreme Court. Three indicted defendants were awaiting extradition proceedings from locations outside New York City.