DA Responds to Neighbors’ Complaints in Takedown of West Hempstead Social Club

Four, including club’s two owners, face drug, gambling charges

MINEOLA, NY – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice has announced today that the complaints of concerned neighbors have led to a late-night raid and the arrests of four men at a West Hempstead Turkish social club that held high-stakes dice and card games.

Rice said that numerous complaints from neighbors beginning in April led to her office’s investigation of El Taban, a private West Hempstead social club. The club’s storefront faces Hempstead Turnpike, but Rice said that club members often gathered in the club’s back parking lot at all hours of the night. The parking lot abuts residential homes, and was the source of a number of noise complaints and concerns about gambling from neighbors.

Members of the Nassau County Police Department’s District Attorney’s Squad, the Fifth Precinct and the Bureau of Special Operations executed a search warrant just after midnight on Saturday morning that resulted in gambling and drug arrests.  Also seized in the raid was $37,000 in cash.

Rice said that Yetim and Karaguney owned the club and collected a portion of the money wagered, while Ayhan acted as the club’s “tea man,” collecting the house’s take. Kotanoglu was a patron at the club. The club offered a Turkish dice game similar to craps, as well as a number of card games and video poker machines.

Ismail Yetim, 37, of Freeport and Kadir Karaguney, 44, of Oceanside, were charged with Possession of Gambling Devices and Promoting Gambling. Huseyin Ayhan, 46, of Wantagh, was charged with Promoting Gambling. Mustafa Kotanoglu, 73, of Elmont, was charged with Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Seventh Degree after he was found to be in possession of cocaine at the time of the arrests. All charges are misdemeanors, and the four men were issued Desk Appearance Tickets. They are due back in court December 2.

“The community was vocal about the illegal activities going on at this club, and we responded to their concerns,” Rice said. “These arrests are the direct result of a neighborhood that refused to cower to criminals.  My administration is very aggressive when it comes to fighting these kinds of ‘quality of life’ issues.  Citizens are often the frontlines when it comes to fighting crime in their community, and we take our responsibility to back them up very seriously.”

Handling the case for the district attorney’s office is Deputy Bureau Chief of the DA’s Economic Crimes Bureau, Assistant District Attorney Anne Donnelly.  The defendants’ attorneys will not be known until their court appearances December 2.