Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes announced this week that a pre-Super Bowl crackdown on sports betting has resulted in the arrest of 11 persons and the smashing of the Califano Organization’s $30 million a year illegal gambling operation.

The District Attorney explained that he decided to send his raiders out earlier than usual this year to prevent bookies from relocating to evade detection or apprehension.

"Our raids are on the mob’s calendar," Hynes said. "They always expect us but nevertheless, we like to keep them on their toes."

The initial investigation into the Califano operation began in August, 2000 and continued until yesterday when a task force of over 75 police officers from the District Attorney’s Office and Brooklyn South Vice Enforcement raided 13 locations - 7 "wire rooms" and 6 homes of the bosses and managers of the illegal gambling operations - in Brooklyn and Richmond counties. Search warrants were executed at 11 locations associated with the "Califano Organization" and 2 locations associated with the "Avenue P Organization," controlled by Michael Cardito.

The investigation is part of Operation Kings Flush, a continuing crackdown to disrupt mob-linked illegal sports betting operations in Kings County. Operation Kings Flush was initiated in 1991 by District Attorney Hynes to interdict the millions of dollars in local sports betting that traditionally takes place just before the Super Bowl.

Raiders seized betting slips valued in excess of $90,000, representing bets taken on just the first of two games played on Saturday, almost $40,000 in cash, and equipment that included computers, calculators, recording machines and telephones. Eleven persons have been arrested to date and punishment for which is a state prison term of up to four years.

The raids and arrests were made earlier than usual this year because the "Califano Organization" went to great lengths to avoid law enforcement detection by using call-forwarding from one location to another to disguise the actual location of their wire rooms, by frequently changing the location of their rooms and by using cell phones, which they believed would be more difficult to trace.

It appears that the "Califano Operation" handled approximately $30 million in illegal bets a year. Additionally, this past Friday, the District Attorney filed a $3.8 million civil law suit against the bosses and managers of "The Califano Operation." The total amount of this forfeiture action is subject to an upward adjustment pending a full analysis of books and records seized on Saturday.

"The idea was to disrupt illegal betting leading up to Super Bowl Sunday," said District Attorney Hynes. "We smashed a major operation and made a lot of bettors unhappy - especially the ones who may have placed winning bets but will never collect because we confiscated the records."

Police estimate that illegal gambling generates $15 billion a year in New York City alone and $100 billion nationally. District Attorney Hynes has called illegal gambling the "cash cow" or organized crime which funds other illicit operations.