Old gambling article on Garbs

Luck has run out for a regional sports-betting ring that once netted an average of $60,000 in illegal wagers per day, authorities said yesterday.

Seven men - five from South Jersey and two from South Philadelphia - were indicted Tuesday by a Mercer County grand jury on multiple counts of promoting gambling, said John Hagerty, a spokesman for the New Jersey Attorney General's Office.

Betting on sports other than horse racing is illegal in New Jersey.

The gambling operation was allegedly run out of a "wire room" in an auto-detailing shop in South Philadelphia, Hagerty said, and accepted wagers on any sporting event imaginable.

John B. Garbarino Jr., 35, of Franklinville, Gloucester County, was identified as the alleged leader of the ring. He set up the bookmaking operation in the 2800 block of South 28th Street in Philadelphia, Hagerty said.

Felix Ezzio, of the 1300 block of South 10th Street, Philadelphia, allegedly ran the day-to-day operations of the wire room, where wagers were fielded and tracked through a sophisticated network of telephone lines and code names.

The indictment states that the operation flourished between July and December 2003, taking individual sports wagers of as much as $1,000 and raking in more than $60,000 in bets daily.

On Dec. 18, state police detectives raided the wire room and several houses in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Authorities seized gambling books and records, betting slips, and $96,000 in cash.

Also charged in the indictment were Joseph "Frogs" Guiffre, 28, of Emily Street, Philadelphia, an alleged wire room employee and debt collector; Michael Knobbs, 32, of Clayton, Gloucester County, an alleged gambling agent, wire room employee, and gambling debt collector; Abraxas "Rex" Bragg, of Bridgeton, Cumberland County, an alleged New Jersey agent for the gambling operation; Mark Crecelius, 43, of Turnersville, Gloucester County, an alleged New Jersey agent for the gambling operation; and Antonio "Tone" Capetillo, of Glassboro, an alleged New Jersey agent for the gambling operation.

The case will be tried in Superior Court in Gloucester County.