Associated Press via The Reno Gazette Journal.Public corruption, weapons and drugs, hidden club ownerships...sounds like Rats alright.5/14/2003 04:45 pm FBI agents on Wednesday raided the offices of three San Diego City Council members, along with strip clubs in San Diego and Las Vegas and a home in southern Nevada as part of a public corruption probe.
U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said the FBI worked with San Diego police in searching the offices of City Council member and Deputy Mayor Ralph Inzunza, and council members Charles Lewis and Michael Zucchet. Officials also searched the Cheetah's nightclub in San Diego, she said.
In Las Vegas, agents entered two clubs _ Cheetah's and Jaguars _ along with Galardi Enterprises, an office atop a bar and pool hall in downtown Las Vegas.
Lam declined to specify the nature of the investigation because it was ongoing. No charges were filed, she said. Authorities in Las Vegas and San Diego said no arrests were made.
A call to Inzunza's office was not immediately returned Wednesday. Calls to the offices of Lewis and Zucchet rang unanswered. Messages left at the homes of Inzunza and Zucchet also were not returned.
A home phone number for Lewis could not be determined.
San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy issued a statement saying his office was not a target of the investigation.
Cheetah's operates clubs in Las Vegas and San Diego. A dancer at the Las Vegas club, Nada Madanat, 22, said she was in the dressing room when agents entered with guns drawn, saying they were looking for weapons and drugs.
Bob Loosle, an FBI supervisory agent in Las Vegas, said the warrants were part of an investigation that had been going on for two years.
He said the raid at the two Las Vegas clubs were not related to a raid in February at the Crazy Horse Too Gentlemen's Club in Las Vegas.
The lawyer for Crazy Horse owner Rick Rizzolo said agents in that case seized records dating to 1995, searched lockers and asked dancers about allegations of drug dealing and hidden club ownership.