L.A. Gangs’ New Target--Vegas Strip

Like corporate raiders seeking new markets to exploit, Los Angeles gang members have come gunning for easy money on the high-rolling Strip.

In a spree of brazen invasion-style heists--three of them in the last three months--suspected Bloods and Crips have stormed into casinos, rifled through the cashier’s cages and made off with tens of thousands of dollars in a matter of seconds.

No bystanders have been injured in any of the holdups, which reflect the continuing evolution of some South-Central gangs into profit-driven enterprises. But the robberies, captured on dramatic surveillance videotape, have stunned this mushrooming tourist mecca and forced image-conscious proprietors to begin beefing up their intentionally low-key security measures.

“When you see these guys jumping like animals over the counters with their pillowcases ready to fill with booty, that really strikes fear in people’s hearts,” said Beecher Avants, security chief at the Gold Coast and a candidate for Clark County sheriff. “This is going to continue . . . as long as we leave cash laying out there like candy.”

Starting with a November, 1992, robbery at the San Remo Hotel and Casino, there have been seven casino heists in Las Vegas, including holdups at the Aladdin, the Flamingo Hilton, Harrah’s and the San Remo again. Although Los Angeles gangs are suspected in five of the crimes, authorities have had enough evidence to file charges in only two.

In almost every case, at least three or four masked gunmen have burst into the neon-bathed gambling halls, waving shotguns and shouting for everyone to hit the floor. A few times, the crowds failed even to hear the commands, drowned out by the clatter of slot machines and the unshakable lounge bands.

Vaulting over the belly-high counters of the cashier’s cages, the robbers have scooped up bundles of large bills, then sped away in stolen cars. One group of alleged thieves, all suspected Crips, was caught in Las Vegas after a high-speed chase. The 15-year-old triggerman in another casino robbery was arrested in South-Central Los Angeles after an informant overheard him boasting about his feat.

None of the loot, which has ranged from $47,000 to $158,000, has been recovered.

“It’s like they think we’re the new frontier, that we’re easy pickin’s,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Victoria Villegas, who successfully urged a 30-year prison term for the juvenile shooter. “We’re trying to send a message to L.A. gangs that this is not going to be looked upon lightly.”

Back in the old days, when legendary mobster Bugsy Siegel first envisioned a shimmering oasis in the desert, the implied threat of Mafia retaliation was enough to discourage almost anyone from pulling such a high-stakes heist.

Veteran newsman Don Digilio likes to tell the tale of Tony Brancato, a daring crook who stole $4,000 from the race book at Siegel’s Flamingo in 1951 with three henchmen. When mysterious fates befell all his cohorts, the story goes, Brancato decided he was better off surrendering to the FBI--only to be shot to death in a parked car in Hollywood shortly after his release on bail.

“There is . . . a big-time problem here that wouldn’t be one if the broken-nose crowd still ran the gambling houses,” Digilio wrote in a Las Vegas Sun column last month.

As the Mafia’s influence waned, large publicly held corporations moved in, eager to erase the Sin City image. In their effort to lure a more family-oriented clientele, many of the Strip’s tonier resorts toned down their security features, replacing armed guards with radio-toting officers in sports jackets.

The traditionalists could still go downtown to haunts such as Binion’s Horseshoe, a dark, wood-paneled joint where iron bars cover the cashier’s window and the Western-style guards swagger with large revolvers on their hips. But at the fuchsia-trimmed Flamingo, now owned by the Hilton chain, company officials decided to yank out the cashier’s bars two years ago on an interior designer’s recommendation.

“The idea was to make everything very open and inviting,” said Flamingo spokesman Terry Lindberg. “Unfortunately, it was to the wrong people.”

On April 22, four young men in ski masks burst through the doors, dashed past Bugsy’s Bar, knocked over a blackjack table and hurled themselves over the unprotected cashier’s counter, where Shipley Stratford was ducking for cover. “Don’t look at me, bitch,” one of the robbers snarled.

Within a minute, they had escaped with more than $150,000. Stratford, 28, recalls that her terror briefly melted when she spotted one of the fleeing thieves--dressed in baggy gang style--struggling to pull up his pants from around his ankles.

The Flamingo’s management wasted no time enclosing her cashier’s cage again with shiny gold-colored bars.

“I feel a lot safer now, really,” said Stratford, who had trouble sleeping after the attack. “Without the bars here, you’re just so vulnerable and exposed.”

It was probably only a matter of time, authorities say, before South-Central’s gangs seized upon Vegas’ vulnerability.

For much of the last decade, Crips and Bloods have been evolving from turf-oriented neighborhood cliques into business-minded outfits. Some of the more sophisticated factions have helped fuel a nationwide drug-trafficking network, while others have been linked to the alarming rise in Southern California bank robberies.

“Our gangbangers are master opportunists,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Wes McBride, who fields calls from law enforcement agencies across the country seeking information about Crips and Bloods migrating from Los Angeles. “Like any predator, they take what they can get.”

With the crack cocaine market saturated and banks rapidly bolstering security, gang experts say, the fast cash of Las Vegas became a lucrative target. Not only are many of the cashier’s cages wide open, but there is little chance that a security guard would risk firing a gun in a casino crowded with tourists.

“No matter what gets taken in a robbery, it’s not as much as they’d have to pay if Grandma gets shot at the damn slot machine,” said Jim Galipeau, a deputy probation officer in South-Central. “It’s well-known in the gang community that you can go in and take anything you want from a Vegas casino as long as you can get out the door.”

Six suspected gang members between the ages of 17 and 24 currently are awaiting trial for their alleged roles in the Harrah’s and San Remo heists. Four suspects in the Aladdin robbery also were arrested, though later released for lack of evidence, after an anti-gang raid at their South-Central home unexpectedly turned up a bag full of the casino’s money wrappers.

The only suspect to be convicted is 15-year-old Donathan Darnell Smith, known on the streets as Deuce Dog, who entered the San Remo casino in August with three youthful-looking friends.

When a security guard told them they would have to leave, court records show, Donathan stuck a .22-caliber pistol to his head. “You, whitey. . . . I’m going to blow your brains out,” the guard, Colin Keel, recalled his attacker saying.

As Donathan’s cohorts leaped into the casino cage and snatched $78,000 in cash, Keel tried to grab the gun, which discharged into the boy’s thigh. The guard broke free and began to flee. Donathan, though wounded, fired at him several more times. After Las Vegas police caught up with him a few months later in Los Angeles, Donathan confessed that he had been paid $150 for his efforts.

Both Donathan’s public defender and gang veterans said he had been used.

“I’m tired of the big homies sending the little homies in on suicide missions,” said T. Rodgers, an ex-Bloods leader who now works as a TV producer for “Behind Bars,” an upcoming Fox series based on jailhouse interviews. “The younger homies only want to earn some respect, but the older homies treat them like they’re expendable. It’s wrong.”

So far, the wave of robberies does not seem to have had any ill effect on the seemingly insatiable demand for gambling in Las Vegas, which annually lures more than 20 million visitors to its multibillion-dollar casino industry.

Fearing the potential for serious harm, however, the Nevada Gaming Control Board this month met with casino chiefs, Las Vegas police and the U.S. attorney’s office to map a preventive strategy. Afterward, the board issued an advisory, recommending that all casinos consider installing more bars, alarms and surveillance cameras, as well as reducing the amount of cash available in the casino cages.

“Future robberies involving serious injury or death could, in addition to the tremendous harm suffered by individuals, have a very negative impact on our tourism and gaming industry,” the May 17 memo warned.

At some of the Strip’s more posh resorts, where the exotic theme is as big a draw as the casino itself, officials have been reluctant to erect any barriers that might detract from the aesthetics.

William Thompson, a gaming expert at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, likens this to his own unsuccessful attempt to market in-room safes to the hotels; several balked, he said, because they didn’t want to create the impression that the rooms were not secure.

“Some of these places are more worried about the perception than the reality,” Thompson said.