The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office arrested 19 people, including several who reportedly broke into a neighboring home to hide, during a raid Thursday morning on an alleged illegal gambling facility on the Southwest Side.
Deputies executed a search warrant on a building in the 200 block of Menefee Boulevard, where they found several gambling machines. During the raid, 12 people fled on foot and forced their way into a nearby home.
Sheriff Javier Salazar said the home was occupied by a family with children and that deputies removed the suspects without any injuries.
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The 19 people were arrested on various charges, including criminal trespass and narcotics. Two were arrested on unrelated felony warrants, and four were arrested on charges of keeping a gambling place.
One of the suspect arrested on suspicion of keeping a gambling place had been arrested several months ago during a similar operation, police said, adding that he is a known member of an outlaw motorcycle gang.
“What we are seeing is that these kinds of cases aren’t just one and done,” Salazar said. “These suspects continue to commit crimes, and we arrest them every chance we get.”
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The sheriff said that running these illegal gambling facilities is not a victimless crime. He said they are a menace to communities in that they target underprivileged, vulnerable populations and that they are a hub for organized crime.
Salazar said a sheriff’s office supervisor involved in the raid told him that “people were coming out of their homes and clapping for the deputies because people were so excited to see an end to this operation.”