CHARLOTTE, N.C. — SWAT officers raided a number of gambling establishments in the Charlotte area on Wednesday.
Officers swarmed one location on Albemarle Road near Independence Boulevard around 1 p.m. with undercover and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police units. Two other locations, along Independence Boulevard in Matthews, and on Bessemer City Road in Gastonia, were also locations of a heavy police presence Wednesday.
It's unclear how many agencies are part of the operation that spans multiple jurisdictions. WCNC Charlotte has contacted CMPD, as well as North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE) to learn more about the operation.
While no agency has offered details yet, WCNC Charlotte reviewed arrest warrants for a woman named Nina Lynne Nashar, a 29-year-old woman in Gastonia. Online records show she was at the Gaston County jail, facing 82 total charges that included a mix of felony and misdemeanor charges. Her charges include gambling, video game machine violations, continuing a criminal enterprise, operating a slot machine, and possessing a slot machine.
The Gaston County jail records noted Nashar's charges were based in Mecklenburg County. A review of court records showed her charges are tied to the arcades raided in Matthews and Charlotte.
Nashar has posted bond.
"A lot of rigmarole goes on over there," Michelle Touchberry, who was in the area when police arrived, said. "You smell weed, they don't keep the place clean. They walk through the parking lot and they just throw trash. You find needles all over here and stuff like that. It's just bad news."
The location on Albemarle Road in Charlotte is called Fish Table Computers Games. WCNC Charlotte's crew saw numerous unmarked police vehicles at the business. A front entrance and at least two other windows were smashed. Officers arrested a Fish Table employee after the raid who is now facing a slew of gambling charges.
A police officer told WCNC Charlotte that there were several raids in Mecklenburg, Gaston and Wake counties on Wednesday.
Police could be seen cracking a safe outside Fish Table and took one employee into custody.
"I saw black and white undercover cars pulling up, like 24 of them," Touchberry said. "Two armored vehicles with people with Army gear on ... They rammed a window on the left and you hear a dynamite blast. It blew off the door, you could hear it in the back of the building."
In 2022, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department teamed up with federal agencies to crack down on illegal gambling. At the time, a spokesperson for the North Carolina Department of Public Safety's Alcohol and Law Enforcement Division said so-called "skill arcades" operating video keno games, slot games and fish tables are illegal in North Carolina.
CMPD said at the time a lot of violent crime was associated with these locations. The department said it will continue to conduct search warrants until they put a stop to illegal gambling operations in Charlotte.