Bicycle Casino and Hotel Raided by Federal Authorities

The Bicycle Casino and Hotel was raided by many federal agents in Bell Gardens on this past Tuesday, paralyzing many bets at one of California’s Southern largest gaming rooms as agents seized multiple financial records and launched an investigation on money laundering.

The investigation began when federal agents arrived on the casino’s floor around 7:00 am and will be focusing on whether individuals actually used this casino to launder money by placing their bets with the dirty money before they actually exchanged their chips in for clean money.  The sources of this information has requested anonymity due to the fact that they have not been authorized to discuss any part of the case.

Members of the Los Angeles High Intensity Financial Crime Area Task Force led the raid on the casino.  This group included investigators from the Internal Revenue Service, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the US attorney’s office as well as members from the California Department of Justice’s bureau of gambling control.

Federal agents that entered the place of business blocked all entrances into the casino parking lot’s early Tuesday morning, while every now and then talking to a frustrated patron or two as well as members of the casino staff that were standing beyond the crime scene tape.  It was shortly before 9:30 am when federal agents waved to an armored truck to come towards the front door of the casino. 

An ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice decline to comment on the nature or the scope of this investigation, other than stating that a search warrant was issued by the US magistrate judge and was filed under seal in the relation to this ongoing investigation.

As of 5:30 pm on Tuesday the investigators were still inside the casino working on the investigation.

Becky Warren, who is a spokeswoman for the hotel and casino stated that the management of the casino were cooperating fully with the authorities, but declined to further comment on the situation.