Court tosses warrant after FBI's Internet 'ruse'

Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen is dismissing an FBI search warrant that led to the arrest of as many as eight people accused of running an illegal online sports betting operation out of Las Vegas (NV). The warrant raised eyebrows after it was revealed that FBI agents cut the suspects’ Internet access, then posed as cable repairmen to enter their luxury hotel rooms and gather evidence that was later used to support the bureau’s search warrant. As a result, Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen ruled the warrant was “fatally flawed.” When applying for the warrant, investigators failed to disclose that their suspicions were largely founded on a “ruse,” Judge Leen said. It doesn’t matter that subsequent evidence gathered with the search warrant turned up more incriminating information.