Canoe

TORONTO (CP) -- Police have charged 54 people with gambling offences after cracking down on a high-tech bookmaking operation they say operated in Ontario and Quebec.

Those arrested this week were members of the Rizzuto crime family, the police said in a release. They face a total of 270 charges.

Police say the family controlled an illegal bookmaking operation that made $200 million a year using the Internet, cellular telephones, Palm Pilots, Blackberry wireless devices and storefronts. The organization accepted bets on all major North American sporting events including professional football, basketball, and hockey, horse racing, and U.S. college sports, the police said.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), April 11, 2001