FBI's Shocking NBA Gambling Bust, Trump's Cartel Roundtable, Adams Endorses Cuomo: AM Update 10/24

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Good morning, everyone.

I'm Emily Drushinsky, host of Afterparty, filling in today for Megan Kelly.

It's Friday, October 24th, 2025, and this is your AM update.

The FBI led a coordinated takedown across 11 states to arrest over 30 individuals today responsible for this case.

The FBI dropping two indictments relating to alleged gambling schemes involving an NBA coach, player, and the mafia.

The shocking details coming up.

The cartels are the ISIS of the Western Hemisphere.

President Trump hosts a White House roundtable discussion on the latest efforts to crack down on cartels.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams teams up with an unlikely ally, and Irina Zarutska's alleged killer indicted.

All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update.

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The FBI arresting more than 30 people, including an NBA coach and player, as well as members of multiple mafia families, in a dramatic Thursday bust across two major indictments.

Names you may know if you're an NBA fan, among the busted, Portland Trailblazers head coach and former player Chauncey Chauncey Billips, current Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Damon Jones, and the Bonano, Genovese, Lucchese, and Gambino crime families.

One indictment relating to insider sports betting on NBA games, the other related to rigged poker matches.

The details are scandalous.

FBI Director Cash Patel on Thursday speaking to the scale of the operation.

This is an illegal gambling operation and sports rigging operation that spanned the course of years.

The FBI led a coordinated takedown across 11 states to arrest over 30 individuals today responsible for this case, which is very much ongoing.

The charges and the arrests that were taken down across this country range from wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery, illegal gambling.

According to Director Patel, the damage is totaling in the tens of millions of dollars in fraud, theft, and robbery.

First, the NBA cheating indictment.

According to the feds, six defendants involved in what U.S.

Attorney Joseph Nasella calls, quote, one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.

Rozier and Jones allegedly passing non-public information to the other co-defendants.

The non-public information included when specific players would be sitting out future games or when they would pull themselves out early for purported injuries or illnesses.

And in at least one instance, they got their information by threatening a current player, Porter, because of his pre-existing gambling debts.

Defendants used this non-public information to place hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent bets, mostly in the form of prop bets, on individual player performance.

The bets were placed through online sports books and also in person at casinos.

The defendants then laundered their illegal winnings in various ways.

The defendants profited from illegal gambling and illegal betting on various NBA games about the performance of players on, among other things, the Charlotte Hornets, the Portland Trailblazers, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Toronto Rangers.

Each defendant in the NBA basketball gambling case has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Rozier arrested in Orlando, his attorney releasing a statement reading in part, quote, Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.

In the other indictment, authorities alleging a multi-year, multi-city operation targeting so-called fish, victims lured in by the chance to play alongside former professional athletes known as face cards.

Those face cards allegedly including Chauncey Billips and Damon Jones.

Prosecutors saying what the victims didn't know is that everyone else at the table, including the dealer, were in on the scheme, fleecing victims out of tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars dollars per game, total profits running up to $7 million.

U.S.

Attorney Nosella describing a sophisticated cheating operation, netting 32 defendants.

They used off-the-shelf shuffling machines that had been secretly altered in order to read the cards in the deck, predict which player at the table had the best poker hand, and relay that information to an off-site operator.

The off-site operator sent the information via cell phone back to a co-conspirator at the table, and that person at the table was known as the quarterback.

The quarterback then signaled secretly the information he had received

to others at the table and together they used that information in order to win their games and to cheat the victims.

Defendants used other cheating technologies such as poker chip tray analyzers, which is a poker chip tray that secretly reads cards using a hidden camera, special contact lenses or eyeglasses that could read pre-marked cards, and an x-ray table that could read cards face down on the table.

Charges stemming from the operation including wire fraud conspiracy, operation of an illegal gambling business, money laundering conspiracy, extortion conspiracy, and robbery conspiracy.

Phillips arrested in Portland, Oregon, charged with money laundering and a wire fraud conspiracy.

And YPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch describing the mafia element of the alleged poker scheme.

These operatives included Capos and multiple soldiers from the Bonano, Gambino, Lucasi, and Genevieve's crime families.

Victims believed that they were sitting at a fair table.

Instead, they were cheated out of millions.

One victim

in particular lost $1.8 million.

In total, losses exceeded $7 million and continue to climb.

And when people refused to pay, these defendants did what organized crime has always done.

They used threats, they used intimidation, and they used violence.

The NBA releasing a statement saying Billops and Rozier have been placed on leave from their teams.

According to court filings, prosecutors are not seeking to hold Billips, Rozier, or Jones in custody while they await trial.

They all face charges that carry up to 20 years in prison.

Coming up, President Trump hosts top administration officials for a progress check on the effort to take down cartel networks.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams endorses an old rival.

And Irina Zarutska's alleged killer formally indicted.

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President Trump holding a roundtable discussion yesterday at the White House featuring top officials weighing in on the administration's fight against drug cartels.

On day one of the second administration, President Trump signing an executive order designating cartels and transnational gangs as foreign terrorist organizations.

The move allowing greater coordination across agencies and unlocking new counterterrorism tools, including sanctions and asset freezes, aimed at dismantling the crime networks inside the U.S.

and abroad.

President Trump kicking off yesterday's gathering, defining the threat in no uncertain terms.

It should now be clear to the entire world that the cartels are the ISIS of the Western Hemisphere.

In addition to their monstrous violence, such as cutting off heads, burning their enemies alive, and burning innocent people alive, too, by the way, the cartels control large swaths of territory.

They maintain vast arsenals of weapons and soldiers, and they use extortion, murder, kidnapping to exercise political and economic control.

Thank you very much, Joe Biden, for allowing that to happen.

Attorney General Pam Bondi laying out some facts and figures.

More than 3,200 violent gangs and drug dealers have been taken off the streets.

91 tons of drugs have been seized as a result of this task force.

We try to put this in perspective for you.

This would be filling four 18 wheelers for all the drugs just in the last month that have been taken off the streets.

58,000 kilos of cocaine.

Think about a big backyard swimming pool.

That would fill one and a half swimming pools.

Just the powder cocaine that has been removed, saving lives this last month, thanks to all of these people around the table.

2,300 kilos of fentanyl powder and 2.1 million fentanyl pills off the streets.

And as the president said, more than 1,000 illegal guns.

Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, discussing how newly formed intel-sharing operations led to the arrest of one of Mexico's most vicious criminals.

I'll say the last example I'll share is probably the most insidious, was providing intelligence to the Mexican law enforcement that led to the arrest of a CJNG cartel-affiliated baby trafficker called La Diabla.

Her whole money-making operation was centered around luring pregnant women, performing illegal C-sections, harvesting organs, and selling newborn babies.

Secretary of War Pete Hagseth doubling down on one of the White House's most controversial cartel fighting initiatives, launching strikes on suspected drug boats.

Yesterday, Secretary Hagseth announcing the ninth strike against a vessel, this one killing three people.

These are designated terrorist organizations, foreign terrorist organizations.

Our generation spent the better part of two decades hunting al-Qaeda, hunting ISIS.

Well, as the president said, this is the ISIS, this is the al-Qaeda.

of the Western Hemisphere.

They intimidate, they terrorize, they extort, they poison the American people.

The president's right, every boat we strike is 25,000 Americans whose lives are saved because of the drugs that were headed in our direction.

So our message to these foreign terrorist organizations is we will treat you like we have treated al-Qaeda.

We will find you, we will map your networks, we will hunt you down, and we will kill you.

Critics slamming the strikes as exceeding White House authority and denying due process rights.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro recently accusing the White House of taking out a fisherman.

One reporter asking about the vessels.

But we know everything about them.

We know where they're coming from, who they're coming with, generally who's in the boat.

But when you see five engines on a boat going about 65 miles an hour, loaded up with white powder in silver cases,

generally speaking, that's not a good sign.

They're not going fishing, right?

Likewise, generally you don't see fishing in submarines either, sir.

New York Mayor Eric Adams endorsing former Democrat and independent mayoral candidate, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo to succeed him.

Adams dropping out of the race last month after trailing far behind Cuomo and current frontrunner Democrat nominee Zoran Mamdani.

Adams soft launching the endorsement on Wednesday night, appearing court side with Cuomo at the next season opener.

On Thursday, Adams officially throwing his support behind Cuomo.

Am I angry that I'm not the one taking down Doron, the socialists and the communists?

You're darn right I am.

But you know what?

The city means more to me than anything.

And it is time for us as a family to come together.

I'm fighting for the family of New York.

That's why I'm here today to endorse Andrew Cuomo to be part of this fight.

And I'm going to give him my all these next few days to make sure that that black and brown communities specifically who have believe there's nothing at stake in this election for them, it is.

Well, you criticize Andrew and you called him names, you know what, and he called me names.

But you know what?

Now it's time to fight for the family.

And I'm going to fight for the family with Andrew Cuomo as the next mayor of the city of New York.

The mayor planning to campaign for Cuomo in neighborhoods where Adams is most popular.

Cuomo's poll numbers climbing by 10 points following Adams' exit from the race, but the disgraced former governor still trailing by double digits.

A new poll by AARP and Gotham Polling and Analytics finding Momdani at 43%,

Cuomo at 29%,

and Republican Curtis Sliwa at 19%.

If Sliwa were to drop out, the gap closes significantly, with Momdani at 44.6% and Cuomo at 40.7%.

Sliwa says he will not drop out under any circumstance.

Election Day is November 4th.

Irina Zarutska's alleged killer, DeCarlos Brown Jr., formally indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury.

Brown charged with violence against a railroad carrier and mass transportation system resulting in death.

According to the indictment, Brown acted with, quote, reckless disregard for human life.

He is eligible for the death penalty.

This charge is in addition to a state charge of first-degree first-degree murder.

Brown was due back in court yesterday for a hearing to determine death penalty eligibility on the state charge, but it was postponed until April 2026 for reasons that are not yet clear.

The stabbing death of the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee occurring on August 22nd on a Charlotte light rail.

Brown ran afoul of the law many times before, including a 2013 conviction for larceny and breaking and entering, and a 2015 conviction for robbery with a dangerous weapon.

The defendant now held in custody without bail pending further proceedings.

Earlier this month, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein signing Irina's Law, a sweeping criminal justice reform measure tightening bail rules for violent offenders and mandating mental health evaluations for certain offenders, among other provisions.

That'll do it for your AM update.

I'm Emily Jashinsky, host of Afterparty.

Megan is back on Monday.

Catch the Megan Kelly Show today live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 111 at Noonies on youtube.com slash megankelly and on all podcast platforms.

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