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FBI Busts Sprawling Gambling Schemes Tied to Mafia, NBA Players; U.S. Military Ramps Up Attacks on Alleged Drug Boats; Tracking the Drug Trade in South America and Beyond; Time to Start Booking Flights for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 23, 2025 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We are getting new reaction to the federal arrests of current and former NBA figures Terry Rozier, Chauncey Billups, and Damon Jones. And just a short time ago, the NBA Players Union released a statement that says in part, "The integrity of the game is paramount, but so is the presumption of innocence. Both are hindered when player popularity is misused."

All of this, of course, involves alleged illegal activity that involves either sports betting or rigged poker games run by the mafia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: Not only did we crack into the fraud that these perpetrators committed on the grand stage of the NBA, but we also entered and executed a system of justice against La Casa Nostra, to include the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchesi crime families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And we're joined now by CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elliott Williams. It's really significant who is involved here, first off.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's so significant who's involved. Terry Rozier, current NBA player, Chauncey Billups. And this sort of hits me hard.

We're exactly the same age. I've watched him for -- and again, these are just allegations. Nothing has been proven yet.

But the mirror, what we're hearing about from someone who was NBA finals MVP is quite significant. And Damon Jones, a former NBA player and coach.

Now, notably, the other folks who are named, and the FBI director noted them here, are the four of the five major crime families in New York organized crime. Gambino, Genovese, Lucchesi, and Bonanno. They ran this network of really high stakes poker games we're going to talk about in a second.

KEILAR: OK, so let's talk about each operation, starting with Operation Royal Flush.

WILLIAMS: And you know, law enforcement loves the fancy names.

KEILAR: Love a good one.

[14:35:00]

WILLIAMS: And it's a good one. This is good. Operation Royal Flush. This is truly bonkers, Brianna, what happened. Let's talk through some of the mechanisms to defraud people of money that happened here.

You had rigged shuffling machines that could count cards and determine, does Brianna have an ace? Does Elliott have two fours or whatever? And then transmit a message as to what people had in their hand, you know, were holding onto card-wise.

Secret signals between people who were in the room. Electronic poker chip trays that could secretly read cards that were on the table. You had eyeglasses and contact lenses that could indicate and could sort of read what someone had in their hands, and analyzing cards.

All of this is a way of tracking who had what in their hands. Sending signals to people who were either in the room or out of the room. And taking people's money. You're talking about up to $7 million some of the time that was here.

KEILAR: If you are into the names here, though, the next one's even better, which is Operation Nothing But Bet.

WILLIAMS: Nothing But Bet. And this is an illegal betting scheme, an alleged illegal betting scheme based on NBA games. Now, the big thing here that's jumped out to me in the indictment was this idea of non- public information.

Now, if court watchers will know, that's the language of insider trading. And when you're talking about trading on information that everybody in the world doesn't have, nobody has access to, but you are using to enrich yourself on. And here, information for bets as to how someone's going to perform in a game.

Like, am I going to go out in the third period or whatever else? Telling people that information in advance and betting a lot of money on it.

KEILAR: Knowing someone is sick, right? If you know that at the last minute because you are a player or you are friends with someone or you've heard something.

WILLIAMS: Yes, another big one here, and this should jump out to everybody. One of the defendants, Damon Jones, sends this text message to co-conspirator 9, writing, "Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information's out!" (Player 3) -- pay attention to that name -- it's White, whatever. is out tonight. whatever. Pay attention to that name. Bet enough so Djones can eat to (sic) now!!!

Now, Player 3, someone who did not play in that game, LeBron James, believed to be LeBron James, who is Player 3. So they were trading on what they knew about players who might have been in and out of this game.

KEILAR: That is wild. And walk us through the charges here.

WILLIAMS: These are really serious charges. Remember, I used the term insider trading before. This is white-collar crime in its truest sense.

Wire fraud, which is the use of phones and electronic media to transact in illegal activity. Robbery, extortion, money laundering, and illegal gambling is charged in these indictments. This is serious stuff.

Everyone's innocent until proven guilty. But the mere allegations ought to send a chill down the spine of every NBA fan, including any sports fan more broadly.

KEILAR: And what happens in court today?

WILLIAMS: What happens in court today will just an initial appearance. Folks won't enter, pleas. Yet they will have that at a future hearing. But these early stages of any sort of criminal prosecution are really just advising defendants of their rights.

You have the right to an attorney. You have the right to a speedy trial. More to come. But for now, you know, you're in the system.

KEILAR: It's perfunctory, but we will be watching very, very carefully. Elliot, thank you so much for walking us through all this. It's unprecedented.

WILLIAMS: It really is.

KEILAR: It is wild. Thank you -- Omar.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: I have a feeling we have a whole lot more to learn on that story. But let's get you to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour.

Oil prices jumped today after the U.S. hit two major Russian oil companies with punishing sanctions. Analysts say it's a move to pressure Russia to end its war on Ukraine. Oil had been near its lowest price in months before the surge. Earlier today, prices were up by about 5 percent.

That's putting pressure, as you might imagine, on gas prices. AAA says the nationwide price is now up to $3.07 a gallon, which, by the way, is still $0.09 cheaper than a year ago.

Also, SpaceX says it has disabled more than 2,500 Starlink devices that have been used by cyber scam syndicates in Myanmar. Despite crackdowns in the war-torn country, criminal networks have been able to access the Internet using Starlink, a company led by Elon Musk. Cyber criminals operating there have been able to scam victims, including Americans, out of billions of dollars every year. And General Motors is about to join the hands-free driving market. The

company plans to introduce what it calls, quote, eyes-off technology, which will allow people to do things like work or watch TV or a movie while the car handles the driving. GM says the new technology will be available starting in 2028.

Separately, General Motors will take a $1.6 billion hit to its electric vehicle business this year because of government policy changes and the end of EV tax credits.

Still ahead, CNN goes inside Ecuador and speaks to the family of one of the survivors of an alleged drug boat attacked by the U.S. military in the Caribbean. Stay with us.

[14:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Happening now. The Trump administration is intensifying its push to make sure the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal holds. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now in Israel, just hours after Vice President J.D. Vance wrapped up his visit. Rubio met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today and is also expected to visit the newly opened Civil Military Coordination Center in southern Israel. Earlier, Secretary Rubio discussed some of the challenges ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Hamas remains a danger not just to Israel but to the people of Gaza. That's why we need an international security force on the ground to stabilize that and prevent them from doing some of the things we've seen. So every day is going to bring challenges like that, but it's also going to bring opportunities.

[14:45:00]

So we've got to take -- you know, we've got to deal with the challenges and make sure they don't unravel this. So I'm not worried about it, but we're aware that these are challenges that we have to confront.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Rubio added next steps after the ceasefire remain a top priority for the Trump administration -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: Well, as the White House looks for peace in the Middle East, it's ramping up its war on alleged drug smuggling in international waters. But officials have provided little evidence to prove that the targets of these attacks are actually guilty. At least two people, for example, are known to have survived the attacks.

CNN's David Culver met one survivor's relative in Ecuador and spoke with other fishermen there getting squeezed by the drug cartels.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this small Ecuadorian coastal town, nearly everyone knows someone who's left for work and never come back.

CULVER: This is all her brother, Andres' clothes, the mattress where he slept up until nearly a year ago. She says he was desperate for work, that he was concerned about providing for his six kids and he said he needed to go to work. And like many in this small coastal town, he is a fisherman.

The thing is, and this is what she found odd, he left behind all of his fishing gear. She says he's a good person and that was just trying to make ends meet.

President Trump says your brother is a terrorist.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

(Speaking in Foreign Language)

CULVER (voice-over): Her brother, Andres Tufino Chila, isn't a stranger to U.S. law enforcement. Court records show he was arrested, convicted and jailed in 2020 for smuggling drugs off Mexico's coast before being deported.

Now, after surviving the latest U.S. strike on a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean, he's believed to be back in Ecuador and free. Officials here say they have no evidence he broke local laws and released him. Yet, his case has put a spotlight on a broader question, who and what exactly are these U.S. strikes trying to stop?

Since early September, the U.S. has carried out at least seven strikes off Venezuela's coast. The Trump administration says they're about saving American lives from drug overdoses. Yet, most U.S. overdose deaths aren't from cocaine, they're from fentanyl, largely produced in Mexico and smuggled over the border, often by U.S. citizens.

It's not clear where exactly the U.S. has been targeting suspected drug running boats. But our analysis of U.S. military flight data shows dozens of surveillance flights just north of Venezuela in the Caribbean.

Far from Ecuador's shores, where cocaine from Colombia in the north and Peru in the south, pours in before moving out to sea, using Ecuador essentially as a transit hub to the Pacific. This is how about 70 percent of the world's cocaine supply gets to the U.S. and Europe and beyond.

And the drug runners, the ones risking it all at sea, mostly are not gang members. They're fishermen, often seen as expendable by the gangs that control them. Ecuadorian officials say they're also cracking down, even with limited resources.

Still, many here say the trade feels impossible to escape.

CULVER: When you ask them about the amount of involvement in narco and drug trafficking, some are hesitant to disclose it.

He says as he looks at it, probably 25 to 30 percent are working in illicit drug trafficking activity.

CULVER (voice-over): Some say they have no choice. In 2023, gangs ambushed a fishing village in the north, targeting those who refused to pay extortion. Nine were killed, dozens wounded. Others say the money makes it worth the risk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We put a box in the hull of the boat to hide the drugs. As a fisherman, I could make $300 a month. But doing an illegal run up to just off the coast of Mexico, I can make $30,000 to $60,000 a month. It's good money.

CULVER (voice-over): If you survive the trip.

Since 2024, Solanda Bermeo's group has documented more than 2,800 Ecuadorian fishermen missing, dead, or detained abroad. These women, some two dozen who wanted to share their stories with us, know their loved ones broke the law, but they also know why.

We don't have work. We don't have any way to support ourselves, she says.

As the U.S. strikes continue far from these shores, the ones caught in the crossfire are rarely cartel leaders, but the men who take the risk for them.

CULVER: She says she really wants to talk to her brother, Andres. She's grateful that at least he's alive, especially considering her other two brothers are both in prison, one here in Ecuador, the other in the U.S. Both of them accused of being fishermen turned drug runners.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[14:50:00]

JIMENEZ: And our thanks to David Culver for that reporting.

Still to come, we're keeping a close eye on the White House as well as President Trump prepares to make an announcement in the next hour. We'll keep you posted on that.

Plus, if you want to travel for the holidays, but you're worried it's going to cost too much, we're going to talk to an expert with tips on how you can do it on the cheap.

We'll tell you how.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:55:00]

JIMENEZ: With the shutdown in its fourth week, any trip to the airport can lead to anxiety, even more so than normal. And that could complicate travel planning as we get closer to the holidays.

I want to bring in a travel expert, Mr. Clint Henderson, Travel Editor for The Points Guy, who joins us now. Clint, good to see you.

Is now the time to start booking your flights for Thanksgiving and Christmas?

CLINT HENDERSON, TRAVEL EDITOR, THE POINTS GUY: Yes, we are in the golden hour. It's the perfect time because prices have come down a little bit, and pretty much after Halloween, they'll start creeping up. So you want to book your Thanksgiving trip by Halloween at the latest, and you want to book your Christmas trips within a week or two of Halloween.

So that's a good sort of metric to be price sensitive and make sure you're getting the best price.

JIMENEZ: I mean, are there any days of the week that are better than others to try and book? I guess we're in the golden hour, so the hour seems to apply to a lot right now.

HENDERSON: Well, yes, and remember, it's a myth that if you wait till midnight on Tuesday, you're going to get a better deal, but it does matter what day of the week you're traveling and what time of the day you're traveling. So if you can travel Christmas Eve, if you can travel, you know, on Christmas Day, you're going to save a lot more money compared to the days before or after. Similar to traveling on a Tuesday or Wednesday, you're usually going to save money with those days.

So not so much when you book, but what days you book is better.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, I think a lot of times conventional wisdom is, all right, people might be going home for the holidays or they might be going to see family. Are there places that actually, you know, you might recommend looking into like destinations wise if you're not going to one of those places that might typically be cheaper around the holidays?

HENDERSON: Absolutely, because remember, business travelers are not traveling for the week of Thanksgiving and the week of Christmas. So a lot of times we'll see some of the best deals of the year for Thanksgiving week, for example. So, you know, put your home airport in Google Flights, explore, take a look at what cheap offers are out there, because if you want to do a last minute international trip, that's a great week to do it.

So don't sleep on alternative destinations for the holidays.

JIMENEZ: You and I have talked about that before, because it's a really fun way to start getting some trip ideas because you can just have it laid out right in front of you. It's nice.

Now, look, one thing that's on a lot of people's mind, I think, right now is we're more than three weeks into the government shutdown. People are worried, and we've already seen more delays even than usual at some of these major airport hubs, some of it tied to air traffic control shortages.

But I just wonder, how are you telling people or how are you advising people to factor in that aspect as they begin to make their travel plans, even before the holidays?

HENDERSON: Yes, so remember, knowledge is power. You really want to know what's going on at your departure airport, but also your arrival airport. So if you see that Newark is having major slowdowns because there's not enough air traffic control workers, then you can sort of plan around that potentially, because once these slowdowns start happening, it leads to cascading delays and cancellations.

So have a sort of plan B these days, and you really want to be on top of the news, make sure you're aware of what's going on, because it does seem to be coming in waves. So it's certain airports at certain times that are being impacted, and it's actually good news for airline safety, because that means, you know, there's not enough workers to handle the volume of traffic, so they're slowing things down.

So it's not necessarily a sign that fliers should be nervous. It's more like be prepared for it and know what's going on. And if things get really bad on a certain day, I say bag it and then just try to fly a different day. The airlines are going to help you accommodate, because they don't want to be stuck with a bunch of passengers stuck at one airport.

JIMENEZ: Yes, no, fair enough. And as you know, better than basically anybody else, is once one thing gets messed up, it affects others at other airports, and that ripple effect tends to grow pretty quickly.

Clint Henderson, from The Points Guy, good to see you. Thanks for being here.

HENDERSON: Happy travels.

JIMENEZ: All right, it is the party of all parties, Mardi Gras down in New Orleans, CNN's original series, "NEW ORLEANS, SOUL OF A CITY," peels back the curtain and shows how New Orleanians can keep the party going even in the hardest of times.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are a city that floods. We are a city living on the edge of precariousness every single day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think for New Orleans, we found a way to kind of create this balance, using Mardi Gras as a tool. No matter how difficult things are, you can still find an opportunity to find joy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like this city has a lot to teach to the rest of the country, because this is one of the few cities where we all can coexist in peace and harmony.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: That looked like a lot of peace and harmony there, a place I would love to visit.

END