When security at the Seminole Classic Casino discovered $5,400 in counterfeit cash while counting money, it led to a Delray Beach man previously banned from all tribal properties, a search warrant says.
Bernardo Lecaros, 34, was arrested Dec. 20 and charged with two counts of possessing counterfeit currency. The third degree felonies are each punishable by a maximum of five years in prison.
Lecaros posted $5,025 bond and was released from jail the next day.
Additional charges are pending, Gary Bitner, a spokesman for the Seminole Tribe said Tuesday.
"Seminole Police have been working closely on this case with the U.S. Attorney and the U.S. Secret Service," Bitner said. "All casinos find counterfeit money from time to time. The situation is no worse at Seminole casinos, and it has not increased in recent months."
Records show Lecaros was no stranger to gambling with funny money at Seminole casinos.
Lecaros was released from a Florida state prison in September 2012 after serving a seven-month sentence for passing off $6,300 in counterfeit money at the Seminole Classic Casino and Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
When Lecaros pleaded guilty to those charges, he was banned from all Seminole properties, records show.
At the time, relatives said Lecaros had fallen prey to a serious gambling and drug addiction and was trying to pay off a $150,000 debt to a loan shark in Peru, according to sentencing documents.
Neither Lecaros nor his attorney could be reached for comment for this article.
On two separate dates in December, security for the Seminole Classic Casino at 4150 N. State Road 7 discovered $5,400 in counterfeit $100 bills, a warrant said.
Surveillance footage showed a possible suspect and companion — Mariana Cordova Ortiz, 23 — at the card table where the bills turned up, the warrant said.
When casino security contacted the U.S. Secret Service with Cordova's name, they said "she is a suspect in passing counterfeit bills in Broward and Palm Beach counties" and is a known associate of Lecaros, the warrant said.
Ortiz has a pending case in Palm Beach County courts from an Oct. 22 arrest for trying to buy handbags with fake money at the Boca Raton Mall. She has not been charged in Lecaros' recent case.
Seminole police arrested Lecaros when he returned to the casino Dec. 20.
When they searched Lecaros' rental car that was parked in the casino's north parking lot, they found drugs and another $37,800 in fake bills, the warrant states.
In a fuse box, officers found 28 counterfeit $100 bills and in the trunk they found 350 fake $100s. They also found five $500 casino chips, four syringes, two pipes, 1.7 grams of marijuana and 10 grams of heroin, the warrant said.
Jail recordings of telephone conversations between Lecaros and Ortiz revealed that Lecaros told her "not to worry because there was nothing in the vehicle."
According to the warrant, Ortiz told Lecaros there was indeed cause to worry. "It's by the radio," she said.
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