Three N.M. men accused of theft in Las Vegas casino

Monday, Nov. 20, 2000 | 2:03 a.m.

Wesley G. Guill, 22, and Michael Scott Spurlock, 23, both of Ruidoso, N.M., were being held Monday in the Lincoln County Detention Center here pending extradition to Nevada.

Detention center administrator John Buffington said Guill is charged with conspiracy, cheating at gambling, burglary, unlawful use of gaming devices and possession of cheating devices. Spurlock is charged with burglary, possession of cheating devices, unlawful use of gaming devices, conspiracy and cheating at gambling.

"We're just waiting to have them picked up," he said.

Brian Torres, 33, of Mescalero, was being held Monday at the Bernalillo County Detention Center in Albuquerque on charges of burglary with intent, possession of cheating devices, unlawful use of gaming and conspiracy to cheat at gambling, according to the jail's records department.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has said Torres and Guill, former employees of Casino Apache at Mescalero, had stolen tokens in their possession when they were arrested March 17 at the Stratosphere Casino in Las Vegas. Most of the tokens were for $100 slot machines.

Keith Copher, chief of investigations for the Nevada gaming board, said at the time that the Mescalero theft was unusually large - even in the high-stakes world of the Las Vegas Strip.

Copher said Torres worked in the Mescalero casino's communications department. Guill was a maintenance worker.

The Mescalero theft was reported to the FBI last March by the National Indian Gaming Commission, a federal agency that regulates gambling on Indian reservations.

Nevada authorities said the case began to unfold March 3 when slot managers at several Las Vegas casinos began noticing defaced $100 slot tokens when they emptied their machines. About a week later, Mescalero tokens began showing up in machines at several Las Vegas casinos and the board put out an alert to casino managers.

On March 17, a cashier at the Stratosphere found one Mescalero token in a batch of $100 tokens Torres and Guill cashed in. She alerted security, and the pair were arrested.

A search turned up about $40,000 in Mescalero tokens, Copher has said.

An investigation led to Spurlock's arrest.