Dozens of people including several former and current NBA players and a coach in connection to two investigations into a widespread sports betting and organized crime ring, the FBI and other federal officials announced Thursday.
Among those taken into custody today are Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier, who has played for the Miami Heat since 2024. Billups, a former star guard who played for multiple NBA teams, was arrested in Portland and Rozier was arrested in Orlando.
Former NBA player Damon Jones was also arrested in connection to the sports betting charges investigation.
FBI and New York City Police Department officials said the arrests are in relation to two federal criminal cases. One involves a sports betting ring involving former and current NBA players, including some who allegedly faked injuries. The other case involves illegal high-stakes poker games involving coaches and operated by organized crime figures.
Some of the 31 defendants in the federal criminal case involving the illegal poker game ring are members of organized crime families known to law enforcement, investigators said. Rozier was arrested in connection with the first case, while Billups was arrested in the second one.
FBI director Kash Patel called the arrests “extraordinary,” saying that they stemmed from a “coordinated takedown across 11 states.”
“Not only did we crack into the fraud that these perpetrators committed on the grand stage of the NBA, but we have also interred and executed a system of justice against La Casa Nostra to include the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese and Luchei crime families,” Patel said.
The NBA did not immediately comment.
This is not the first high-profile incident involving alleged illegal betting and the NBA. Earlier this year in a separate case, former NBA player Gilbert Arenas was arrested for allegedly operating an illegal gambling and poker ring out of a California home that he owned.
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