NEW CITY – Eight people have been arrested in Rockland County on charges of operating a large-scale gambling and loan sharking operation in Rockland and Westchester counties, New York City, Long Island, Pennsylvania and Florida.
The arrests culminated a 10-month undercover investigation, dubbed “Operation Rock Bottom,” into illegal loan sharking activity, as well as an illegal gambling operation which had associations to organized crime in Rockland County, District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said.
Investigators learned that several of the defendants were involved in illegal loan sharking, providing high interest or usurious loans to people who were unable to secure funds through normal means.
Those people were then pressured to make weekly or bi-weekly payments back at high interest and often never able to satisfy or pay off those loans.
The illegal gambling operation was conducted through an online offshore gambling website where the players or betters were assigned a user name and password in order to access the website and place wagers on sporting events including football and basketball. The suspects would monitor the website’s activity and then collect or pay out to the players or bettors any monies owned on a weekly basis.
On April 1, over a dozen search warrants were executed in Rockland County; Bergen County, New Jersey Matamoras, Pennsylvania; Franklin Square, New York; Ft. Lauderdale and Orange County, Florida.
Investigators seized evidence of illegal gambling records, computers and large amounts of cash over $750,000.
Arrested were:
Ronald Ayes, 71, of South Nyack
Nicholas Farese, 51, of Nanuet
Richard Herman, 75, of New York City
Anthony Moschella, 75, of Valley Cottage
Mark Moschella, 52, of New Jersey
Peter Reda, 57, of Franklin Square
Vincenzo Red, 34, of Franklin Square
John Reyes, 72, of Monsey
