Many luxury cars, hundreds and thousands of dollars in cash, and jewelry were seized in an illegal gambling raid. Three people are in jail after what police are calling as substantial organized crime investigation.

Marietta police said that this is a result of a two-year investigation. The detectives have been watching Gantts Food on the Franklin Gateway and another convenience store on the Windy Hill Road which police said is owned by the same man, named Khubaib Hussain.

Detectives said that the gaming machines in both stores were paying out cash, and that is illegal in Georgia. “What they have been doing is paying people off in cash, anywhere from $5 to $5,000,” said the Marietta Police Officer Brittany Wallace.

On Monday police obtained search warrants for the two stores and the owner’s home in the Douglas County. Police said that they seized five vehicles, $250,000 cash, jewelry, computers and also a phone.

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Hussain along with two employees were arrested and charged with the felony commercial gambling. On Tuesday night, they were in the Cobb County Jail, but the stores were open, without the gaming machines. Those were seized by the state authorities on  Tuesday afternoon.

Nikki Tavares is a customer of the Gantts Food. She said that she often saw people playing the machines. Tavares also said that, “people come and sit at the machines and they smoke their cigarettes, but I did not think they were doing anything wrong.”

Marietta police said that the investigation involved a number of agencies including the Cobb County Police Department, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and also the Department of Revenue. The authorities said they are also looking into possible money laundering and tax evasion.

By Mrudula.