Man charged in $1.5-million Bellagio heist pleads guilty
The so-called Biker Bandit pleaded guilty here Tuesday to carrying out a movie-worthy heist at the Bellagio casino in which the helmet-wearing thief waved a gun at a craps table, swiped $1.5 million in chips and escaped on a black motorcycle.
Anthony Carleo, 29, admitted to armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon, sparing him a trial on multiple felony counts.
He faces at least three years in prison when he is sentenced in August, said Christopher Owens, the assistant district attorney handling the case.
“I went into the casino. Went to the craps table, took chips and ran out,” Carleo told Judge Michelle Leavitt, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Carleo is also expected to plead guilty this week to charges linked to another armed robbery, in which more than $18,000 was stolen from the Suncoast casino, Owens said.
After the December Bellagio heist, whose brazenness drew comparisons to the movie “Ocean’s Eleven,” Carleo returned to the hotel and, as authorities tracked him, gambled away tens of thousands of dollars.
Carleo was arrested at the luxury resort in February after authorities said he had sold several $25,000 chips known as “cranberries” to an undercover police officer for cut-rate prices.
Carleo is the son of Las Vegas municipal Judge George Assad, who earlier this month lost a bid for reelection. Carleo’s attorney, William Terry, did not return a call seeking comment.
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