Geeta Singh — who promoted a West Village underground poker game with alleged ties to drug trafficking — was arraigned in a Manhattan Court on Wednesday. Singh pleaded not guilty to six counts of promoting gambling, but appeared to duck the drug charges.
After being picked up in Atlanta, Georgia, Singh was extradited to New York. Assistant District Attorney Mark Mohr told the court that Singh was the lead promoter of the illicit poker operation, and that she thought so highly of her own skills in doing so that she referred to herself as the “LeBron James of poker” to authorities.
Singh was released without bond.
Joint Force Sting
The Greenwich Village underground poker game was busted after an ICE and NYPD joint sting operation — aimed at removing cocaine and heroin from the streets of New York City — led investigators with the two law enforcement agencies to the illicit gathering.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the New York Police Department (NYPD) discovered the poorly hidden poker operation, which was actually several games — one for a minimum $200 buy-in, the other for a minimum $500 buy-in — with three tables on each floor operating from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m., according to a press release from ICE.
Big Money Funds Drug Op
The release states that “tens of thousands of dollars” cycled through the game each night, and that the money the house made was used to finance a drug operation.
According to investigators, 52-year-old David Diaz was the head of both illegal operations.
Beneath him, Benjamin Guerrero, 38, was in charge of a “drug stash apartment” and was the pit boss for the game. Greeta Singh managed and promoted the game from Atlanta, Georgia using the “Meetup” app and providing players with an exclusive text message that allowed them entry.
Singh called herself “the LeBron James of poker,” the New York Post reported, but did not elaborate on why Singh compared herself to the world-famous basketball star.
In all, 32 people have been arrested across four states: New York, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Florida. ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division led the investigation.
“Those arrested today are not just alleged to have been involved in selling highly addictive drugs on city streets, but they are also connected with a sophisticated underground gambling operation right here in Manhattan,” HSI Special Agent Angel Melendez said at the time of the arrests.
In November 2017, undercover investigators began buying drugs from two members of the ring who were both eventually among the 32 arrested earlier this month. A wiretap on one of the individuals linked the drug operation with the underground poker game.
The release states that “several undercover sales” were completed near the poker house. But most drug transactions took place in the East Village. Some of purchases were for as much as $5,000 and in total undercover officers purchased $50,000 in drugs from the organization.
