Cleveland Poker Robbery: An Inside Job

A high stakes poker room was recently robbed in Cleveland, OH (USA) by men with guns. The poker game was organized by associates from meetup.com and the Cleveland Poker Festival. Participants showed up at the game ready to play and win. Over $11,000 in cash was in the apartment when it was robbed. 

Looking back, the players believe that they should have been suspicious. There was one man, by the name of Jonathan Powell, who acted strangely. He seemed a bit out of it and talked a lot on his mobile phone. He eventually left to go outside to smoke a cigarette and came back with two men who had rifles. The men and one woman sprayed everyone at the party with pepper spray and commenced to rob them, taking all of their money.

Powell pretended to be a victim but prosecutors saw right through that. Instead, they suggested that he was the inside guy and helped the three other assailants with the robbery. The other people involved, who were eventually arrested, were Reba Smith, Stanley Smith and Duane Smith. All will face charges of kidnapping and robbery, amongst others. Jonathan Powell will face these charges as well.
As an increasing number of individuals host games in their homes, more robberies of these games are occurring as well. Another robbery in the state at an in-house poker game netted robbers, $75,000. The perpetrators were eventually caught in that robbery as well.
source:blog.cleveland.com

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