Florida sheriff accused of participating in ‘massive’ illegal gambling ring granted $1 million bond
Lake County Sheriff’s Office
(TALLAHASSEE, FL) — A now-suspended Florida sheriff accused of helping expand and protect an illegal gambling operation was granted $1 million bond on Friday.
Marcos Lopez, 56, was arrested and charged Thursday with racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering, both first-degree felonies, in connection with what prosecutors called a “massive” illegal gambling operation in Central Florida, including Lake and Osceola counties.
The operation generated more than $21.6 million in illicit proceeds, according to the Florida Attorney General’s Office.
Lopez, who was first elected to serve as the sheriff of Osceola County in 2020, allegedly took campaign contributions and personal payments from the operation before going on to play a “multifaceted role in expanding and protecting this illegal enterprise, using his office to shield the enterprise from law enforcement,” the office said.
The charging document alleges Lopez and others charged in the case committed money laundering, operated a gambling house in Kissimmee and illegally possessed slot machines. Lopez is also accused, in his capacity as sheriff of Osceola County, of receiving “unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior” and using confidential information with the intent to obstruct a criminal investigation, according to the document.
The allegations in a 255-page affidavit detail an “extreme breach of public trust,” prosecutor Panagiota Papakos said during Lopez’s first court appearance on Friday.
Text messages between Lopez and his alleged co-conspirators dating back to 2019 show his alleged involvement in the illegal enterprise, including sourcing new locations and screenshots of slot machines, according to Papakos. Lopez allegedly used his influence as sheriff to “facilitate this illegal enterprise” and “potentially obstruct criminal investigation into these businesses in Osceola County,” she said.
Since 2020, he allegedly obtained $600,000 to $700,000 in cash payments from the illegal enterprise, Papakos said.
The state requested $600,000 bond for each count, for a total of $1.2 million, citing in part the seriousness of the alleged offenses.
Lopez’s defense attorney argued that such a bond would be very high for the nature of the crime and “tantamount to no bond,” given what his family could afford. She asked for $25,000 bond for each count, for a total of $50,000, citing his lack of criminal history, “extreme ties” to the community and the non-dangerous nature of the offenses. She also asked that the court not treat Lopez any differently, merely because of his title, and still look at him “as a regular individual.”
Judge Emily Curington ultimately set his bond at $500,000 for each count, with conditions including that he undergo GPS monitoring and surrender his passport should he post bond. She also asked that the source of the funds be shown to the state, after Papakos expressed concerns about them coming from “any illegal enterprise or illegal proceeds.”
During the hearing, Lopez asked the judge how he would start the bond process. He currently remains in custody, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office’s website.
His next court date has been scheduled for June 30. He has yet to enter a plea.
BREAKING! Osceola County Sheriff Marcos R. Lopez was arrested by @HSITampa following an investigation into a criminal organization operating an illegal gambling enterprise throughout Central Florida, particularly in Lake and Osceola Counties, which generated $21.6+ million in… pic.twitter.com/hVazzAo5Ba
The investigation remains ongoing, and other charges may be announced at a later date, the Florida Attorney General’s Office said.
“This is a solemn day for Florida and our law enforcement community. We put great trust in our constitutional officers, especially those who are our communities’ first line of defense,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a statement on Thursday. “However, the law must be applied equally, regardless of position, power, or branch of government. Public servants should never exploit the public’s trust for personal gain.”
Lopez has been suspended per an executive order from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office. Christopher Blackmon, the Central Region chief for the Florida Highway Patrol, was appointed as the Osceola County sheriff, according to DeSantis’ order.
An undated photo found by Vernon, Connecticut, police on the devices of a 17-year-old girl associated with the online network 764 shows a Barbie Doll marked with “764.” (Vernon Police Department)
(WASHINGTON) — FBI officials say they are growing increasingly concerned about a loose network of violent predators who befriend teenagers through popular online platforms and then coerce them into escalating sexual and violent behavior — pushing victims to create graphic pornography, harm family pets, cut themselves with sharp objects, or even die by suicide.
The online predators, part of the network known as “764,” demand victims send them photos and videos of it all, so the shocking content can be shared with fellow 764 followers or used to extort victims for more. Some of the predators even host “watch parties” for others to watch them torment victims live online, according to authorities.
“We see a lot of bad things, but this is one of the most disturbing things we’re seeing,” said FBI Assistant Director David Scott, the head of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, which is now leading many of the U.S. government’s investigations tied to 764.
The FBI has more than 250 such investigations currently underway, with every single one of its 55 field offices across the country handling a 764-related case, Scott told ABC News in an exclusive interview.
He said the FBI has seen some victims as young as nine, and federal authorities have indicated there could be thousands of victims around the world.
‘Nihilistic violent extremists’
“[It’s] very scary and frightening,” the Connecticut mother of a teen girl caught up in 764 told ABC News.
“It was very difficult to process, because we didn’t raise her to engage in that kind of activity,” said the mother, speaking on the condition that ABC News not name her or her daughter.
Last year, in classic New England town of Vernon, Connecticut, local police arrested the girl — a former honor roll student — for conspiring with a 764 devotee overseas to direct bomb threats at her own community. When police searched her devices, they found pornographic photos of her, photos depicting self-mutilation, and photos of her paying homage to 764.
As Scott described it, one of the main goals of 764 and similar networks is to “sow chaos” and “bring down society.”
That’s why the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division and the Justice Department’s National Security Division are now looking at 764 and its offshoots as a potential form of domestic terrorism, even coining a new term to characterize the most heinous actors: “nihilistic violent extremists.”
“The more gore, the more violence … that raises their stature within the groups,” Scott said. “So it’s sort of a badge of honor within some of these groups to actually do the most harm to victims.”
According to an ABC News review of cases across the country, over the past few years, state and federal authorities have arrested at least 15 people on child pornography or weapons-related charges, and accused them in court of being associated with 764.
In one of those federal cases, a 24-year-old Arkansas man, Jairo Tinajero, plotted to murder a 14-year-old girl who started resisting his demands. When he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and child pornography charges three months ago, Tinajero said he believed the murder would raise his stature within the 764 network. His sentencing is set for August.
In another federal case, 19-year-old Jack Rocker of Tampa amassed a collection of more than 8,300 videos and images that the Justice Department called “some of the most horrific, evil content available on the Internet.” He pleaded guilty in January to possessing child sexual abuse material and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
While amassing his collection, Rocker organized his digital content into folders with titles such as “764” and “kkk-racist.” Another folder, called “trophies,” contained photos of victims who carved his online monikers into their bodies — a form of self-mutilation known as “fan signing.” He also had a folder titled “ISIS,” referring to the international terrorist organization that produced barbaric beheading videos.
Followers of the 764 network share all sorts of violent content with their victims, while some also glorify past mass-casualty attacks such as the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, or introduce victims to other extreme ideologies like neo-Nazism or Satanism, according to authorities.
“They want to desensitize these young people so that nothing really disturbs them anymore,” Scott said.
Just two weeks ago, the Justice Department announced the arrest of a 20-year-old North Carolina man, Prasan Nepal, for allegedly operating an elite online club dedicated to promoting 764, extorting young victims, and producing horrific content. He has yet to be arraigned.
In charging documents, the Justice Department said Nepal helped launch 764 with its Texas-based founder more than four years ago.
Though charging documents don’t identify the founder by name, federal law enforcement sources identified him to ABC News as Bradley Cadenhead, who is serving an 80-year-prison sentence in Texas after pleading guilty to several child pornography-related charges in 2023.
According to court documents, Cadenhead launched his new online community on the social platform Discord and called it “764” because at the time — when he was 15 — he lived in Stephenville, Texas, where the ZIP code begins with the numbers 764.
‘It’s everywhere’
Since the launch of the initial 764 group, which garnered a couple of hundred Discord followers, 764 has become a global movement, with an array of offshoots and subgroups that often rebrand and change their names to help keep social media companies and law enforcement from tracking them.
The original 764 was itself an offshoot of previous extremist and gore-focused groups online.
“Think of this less as a group, and think of it more as an ideology,” Vernon police detective Tommy Van Tasel said of 764 and similar networks. “It doesn’t matter what they’re called. There are a lot of actors out there … encouraging this type of behavior. So it’s everywhere. It’s in every community.”
Indeed, the young Connecticut girl that Van Tasel would eventually investigate was sucked into 764 by a man overseas.
Reflecting what her family described as a typical 764-related encounter, the girl met him on the popular online gaming platform Roblox, and then they began communicating more regularly online, including on Discord, which caters to gamers.
The man convinced her he was her boyfriend, and she sent him sexual photos of herself — the types of images that 764 adherents threaten to share widely if victims don’t comply with their escalating demands.
According to police, she had produced an assortment of 764-related content, including a photo of a nude Barbie doll marked with “764” on its forehead; photos depicting her cutting herself; and a note, written in her blood, calling her supposed boyfriend “a god.”
“They felt like they owned her,” the girl’s mother said.
And, fearing even further extortion, the girl began participating in some of the same threatening behavior that she had endured herself, according to Van Tasel.
Scott said it’s common to “have victims who then become subjects” by perpetrating acts “on behalf of the individual who victimized them.”
According to her family, the Connecticut girl was trained to hack into Roblox accounts and lock them — which allowed her to make demands of account owners if they wanted their accounts back. And she allegedly helped direct a series of threats that rattled Vernon-area schools for three months in late 2023 and early last year.
“I have placed two explosives in front of Rockville High School, and if they fail to detonate, I’m going to walk into there and I’m just going to shoot every kid I see,” a male with a British accent claimed during a call to Vernon police in late January 2024.
Those threats led Van Tasel to the girl whose mother spoke with ABC News. The girl was arrested on conspiracy-related charges and referred to juvenile court.
But even before her arrest, she had started to resist some of the demands that were being directed at her. As a result, her family’s home was bombarded by incidents of so-called “swatting,” when false reports of crimes or violence try to induce SWAT teams to respond to a location in an effort to intimidate targets there.
“One time … they had surrounded our whole house,” the girl’s mother said. “And then that kept going on and on.”
Scott said swatting is a common tactic used by adherents of 764 and similar networks when they don’t get compliance.
The man at the heart of the Connecticut girl’s ordeal is still under investigation by authorities, according to Van Tasel.
‘Be on the lookout’
Van Tasel and Scott offered several tips to parents worried about whether their children could fall victim to 764. In particular, they said parents should watch what their children are doing on applications and online games.
A spokesperson for Roblox agreed, saying in a statement to ABC News that parents should “engage in open conversations about online safety,” especially because 764 is “known for using a variety of online platforms” to evade online safeguards.
A Discord spokesperson, meanwhile, said that 764 is “an industry-wide issue,” and that the “horrific actions of 764 have no place on Discord or in society.”
Both spokespeople said each of their companies is “committed” to providing a safe and secure online environment for users, with both noting that each company uses technology to remove harmful content and, by policy, prohibits behavior endangering children.
Discord added that “behind the scenes” it made “proactive disclosures of information to law enforcement” and, “where possible,” assisted authorities in building the case against Nepal, who allegedly helped launch 764.
Van Tasel and Scott said parents should also look out for changes in their children’s activities or personality, and watch for questionable injuries to family pets or evidence of self-harm.
Scott said that if a child is wearing long-sleeved clothing or trying to cover up their body on hot days, that could be a sign of self-harm.
“Just be on the lookout for any of those things that are alarming, and just have in the back of your mind that this may all be a result of what is happening online,” Van Tasel said, urging parents to call law enforcement if they have concerns.
As for the Connecticut girl caught up in 764, her mother told ABC News that she cooperated with authorities, the case against her is “almost resolved,” and she’s now “back on track” after getting help.
“Back to having friends, back to attending activities,” her mother said. “Not quite back to where she was when it all began, but she’s getting there.”
(CHICAGO) — Federal authorities seized nearly $34 million worth of illegal e-cigarettes in their latest effort to crack down on unauthorized vaping products entering the U.S.
The Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection discovered nearly two million illegal e-cigarette units during inspections in Chicago this February, officials announced Thursday.
Almost all the products came from China and included brands like Snoopy Smoke and Raz.
In a new move to combat illegal imports, the FDA also sent warning letters to 24 companies that bring tobacco products into the country.
“We can and will do more to stop illegal e-cigarettes from coming into the United States,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in the press release. “These seizures keep unauthorized products away from our nation’s youth.”
More than 20 million e-cigarettes are sold each month in the U.S., according to CDC Foundation data. However, only 34 tobacco and menthol-flavored e-cigarette products are allowed to be sold in the U.S.
Officials said many companies tried to sneak illegal products past customs by using fake labels and incorrect values on shipping documents.
“We keep finding more shipments of vaping products that are packaged and mislabeled to avoid getting caught,” according to Bret Koplow, who leads the FDA’s tobacco regulation center. “But we’re getting better at stopping these products before they reach U.S. stores.”
The FDA said the seized products would be destroyed. This operation was part of an ongoing effort that had already stopped more than $77 million worth of illegal e-cigarettes in the past year through similar raids in Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago.
The agency has also issued more than 750 warning letters to companies making or selling unauthorized vaping products and over 800 warnings to stores selling them. It also filed financial penalties against 87 manufacturers and more than 175 retailers.
(NEW YORK) — April may be known for its rain showers — but when the clouds part, nighttime skygazers can enjoy meteor showers and other dazzling displays all month long, according to astronomers.
Viewers in the Northern Hemisphere will be treated to simultaneous meteor showers this month. Fireballs from the Lyrids and the Eta Aquarids will be streaking through the sky at the same time from April 20 to 26, according to NASA.
The Lyrids originate from the Comet Thatcher and peak during late April, when they release about 18 meteors per hour, according to NASA.
Viewers should look for the Lyrids during the darkest hours, after moonset and before predawn, astronomers say. Lyrids appear to radiate near the star Vega.
The Eta Aquarids originate from the Comet Halley and typically peak during early May every year, releasing about 50 meteors per hour at their peak, according to NASA. They are also known for their speed, traveling nearly 41 miles per second through the atmosphere.
Astronomers recommend viewing the Eta Aquarids during the predawn hours. Look toward Aquarius, where the radiance of the Eta Aquarids appears to originate from. The Eta Aquarids will be active from April 20 to May 21.
Early April is also a good time to attempt the “Messier Marathon,” a challenge in which observers attempt to view as many of the 110 Messier objects as possible — including nebulae, star clusters and galaxies, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
Other notable events will take place in early April.
On Wednesday, the Pleiades star cluster appears near the Moon, according to EarthSky. On Thursday, the moon will align with Jupiter.
Several celestial objects will form a line in April. On Saturday — as well as from April 11 to 12 — the moon and Mars will come together and be joined by twin stars Castor and Pollux, according to EarthSky.
In addition, the sun’s magnetic field is still in its solar maximum, making northern lights events more frequent. Peak solar activity is expected until March 2026.
The events will be visible from the Northern Hemisphere by both telescope and the naked eye, according to astronomers.
