Man Sentenced to Prison for Gambling-Motivated Robberies

A man from Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been sentenced to prison because of gambling-motivated robberies. The man, according to court documents, struggled with severe gambling addiction.

According to evidence presented at trial, M. Candelaria, 36, had serious gambling problems, causing him to rob his own father-in-law, John Doe. On September 14, 2021, Candelaria teamed up with an unknown co-conspirator who raided Doe’s home.

The perpetrator entered the home undetected late at night and threatened Doe with a gun. The latter was unable to open the safe but wrote a $23,000 check instead. Despite that, the man was then beaten, receiving serious injuries and falling unconscious. He was later found by his daughter and escorted to the hospital.

Following the invasion, Candelaria attempted to deposit the money from the check into his own bank account. However, the bank clerks noticed two separate handwritings on the check and suspected fraud.

Several weeks later, Candelaria robbed a bank. On October 30, 2021, he stormed into a Bank of America branch, using a typewritten demand note that threatened cartel violence. He made the bank teller give him the cash from his register and ran away.

According to the investigation, Candelaria was desperately seeking money in order to fuel his rampant gambling addiction. The court learned that the man had, between September 2020 and May 2022, visited a local casino roughly 169 times, spending huge amounts of money.

On March 27, 2024, Candelaria was convicted by a federal jury of bank fraud. On April 10, he entered into a plea agreement on the bank robbery charge.

Candelaria has been now sentenced to 26 years in prison plus five years of supervised release.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant US Attorneys Samuel Hurtado and Natasha Moghadam. The case was investigated by the FBI Albuquerque Field Office.

In other gambling crime-related news, an anonymous threat led to the gathering of a large number of police officers and vehicles at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa on Thursday afternoon. The call was from an anonymous man who claimed that he was a guest of the casino and in possession of explosives and guns. No suspicious individuals or explosives were found.

Earlier, a shooting near the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma led to a man’s death. At around the same time, a homeless person was arrested in Fresno for attacking a security guard at Club One Casino.