{"id":86283,"date":"2018-08-21T10:30:13","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T17:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=86283"},"modified":"2018-08-21T10:53:07","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T17:53:07","slug":"las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas Metro Police Bust Rio Casino Hotel \u2018Gang Party,’ But One Reveler Says It Was Only a Birthday Bash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas Metro<\/a> crashed a party of alleged gang members uninvited, when they entered a suite at the Rio Hotel & Casino<\/a> off the Strip shortly after 2am on Sunday, arresting 12 and seizing five handguns. LVMPD said in a tweet that they did it to “keep our locals and tourists safe,” but one of the women arrested told local TV news site Fox5 that it was nothing more than a birthday party for her brother.<\/p>\n

\"Rio
Mugshots from Sunday’s Rio alleged gang party raid. While only two of the arrested were charged with carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, outstanding warrants on the others included past charges of soliciting or engaging in prostitution, domestic battery, contempt of court, and an unresolved traffic violation. (Image: LVMPD\/Fox News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Captain John Leon of the Metro Police Department Gang Unit said several gangs were present at the party, which included between 40 to 50 people, and insisted those arrested were known gang members.<\/p>\n

\n

Two partygoers — 41-year-old Corey Johnson and 24-year-old Phillip Semper — were booked on one count each of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit and taken to Clark County Detention Center (CCDC) for booking. The others were arrested on various active warrants, ranging from prostitution all the way down to one traffic warrant.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Leon said gang parties typically do not meet up at Las Vegas resorts because of tight security.<\/p>\n

Partygoer\u2019s Denial <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ashley Medlock — the partygoer who was arrested on the outstanding traffic violation — denied it was a gang party when she spoke to Fox 5 Local News onTuesday. She said the group was there to celebrate her brother\u2019s 26th birthday.<\/p>\n

Not one time did we get a warning,\u201d said Medlock of the police activity. \u201cThere was no crime committed there. The first knock at the door was 50 police officers. That\u2019s like something happened, like there was a fight. No, it was a birthday party. Everyone in there were friends.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe got the OK to throw the party, we paid the money, we followed the rules \u2026 we had our guests under control, so that\u2019s why it was so shocking to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rio
Ashley Medlock did not agree with LV Metro’s assessment of the Sunday party and felt the arrests were unfair. (Image: Fox5 News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Medlock was asked by Fox whether there were any gang members present, she said she wasn\u2019t too sure, but admitted it was \u201cpossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police said they were called by the Rio\u2019s security team\u00a0 at about 2 am due to noise emanating from the suite on the hotel\u2019s 20th\u00a0floor. On entering, they searched partygoers and found the now-confiscated guns.<\/p>\n

It is legal to carry guns in Nevada, but concealed weapons require a special permit (CCW) and casinos do not allow firearms on their properties at all, including licensed CCW, except for law enforcement.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Gang Violence on the Rise<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There are believed to be more than 400 gangs with some 10,000 gang members in the Las Vegas Valley. Metro Police controversially dissolved its gang unit in 2016 as part of Sheriff Joe Lombardo\u2019s decentralization plan, a move largely criticized by locals.<\/p>\n

Subsequently, 2016 saw rising gang violence and was a record year for homicides<\/a>, with 168. Last year, the unit was revived.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In March, Metro’s gang unit arrested five MS-13 members allegedly responsible for ten murders within just a year’s time in and around Las Vegas. Those gang members, typically from El Salvador, have become notorious across the US for the savage methodology — and often fairly random targets — of their violence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas Metro crashed a party of alleged gang members uninvited, when they entered a suite at the Rio Hotel & Casino off the Strip shortly after 2am on Sunday, arresting 12 and seizing five handguns. LVMPD said in a tweet that they did it to “keep our locals and tourists safe,” but one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":86287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLas Vegas Metro Police Busts Rio Casino Hotel \u2018Gang Party'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Las Vegas police crashed gang party at a suite in Rio in the early hours of Sunday morning, seizing guns and arrest 12 known gang members for a variety of offenses.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Las Vegas Metro Police Busts Rio Casino Hotel \u2018Gang Party'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Las Vegas police crashed gang party at a suite in Rio in the early hours of Sunday morning, seizing guns and arrest 12 known gang members for a variety of offenses.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-21T17:30:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-08-21T17:53:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/mugshots.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"562\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/\",\"name\":\"Las Vegas Metro Police Busts Rio Casino Hotel \u2018Gang Party'\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/mugshots.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-21T17:30:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-08-21T17:53:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Las Vegas police crashed gang party at a suite in Rio in the early hours of Sunday morning, seizing guns and arrest 12 known gang members for a variety of offenses.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/mugshots.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/mugshots.png\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":562,\"caption\":\"Mugshots from the Rio gang party. Charges include carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, soliciting or engaging in prostitution, domestic battery, contempt of court and a traffic violation. (Image: Fox News)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Las Vegas Metro Police Bust Rio Casino Hotel \u2018Gang Party,’ But One Reveler Says It Was Only a Birthday Bash\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Las Vegas Metro Police Busts Rio Casino Hotel \u2018Gang Party'","description":"Las Vegas police crashed gang party at a suite in Rio in the early hours of Sunday morning, seizing guns and arrest 12 known gang members for a variety of offenses.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Las Vegas Metro Police Busts Rio Casino Hotel \u2018Gang Party'","og_description":"Las Vegas police crashed gang party at a suite in Rio in the early hours of Sunday morning, seizing guns and arrest 12 known gang members for a variety of offenses.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2018-08-21T17:30:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-08-21T17:53:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":562,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/mugshots.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/","name":"Las Vegas Metro Police Busts Rio Casino Hotel \u2018Gang Party'","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/mugshots.png","datePublished":"2018-08-21T17:30:13+00:00","dateModified":"2018-08-21T17:53:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Las Vegas police crashed gang party at a suite in Rio in the early hours of Sunday morning, seizing guns and arrest 12 known gang members for a variety of offenses.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/mugshots.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/mugshots.png","width":1000,"height":562,"caption":"Mugshots from the Rio gang party. Charges include carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, soliciting or engaging in prostitution, domestic battery, contempt of court and a traffic violation. (Image: Fox News)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-bust-gang-party-at-the-rio-arrest-12\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Las Vegas Metro Police Bust Rio Casino Hotel \u2018Gang Party,’ But One Reveler Says It Was Only a Birthday Bash"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}