Federal authorities have accused Steven Blackwell, a notorious drug dealer from Baltimore, of laundering drug money from his heroin operation through the Maryland State Lottery, a used car dealership and several casinos from Las Vegas. The accusations were laid out in an indictment and they are the most the police have had on Blackwell since 2008.

It appears that Steven Blackwell used a woman from Elkton by the name of Joy Edison to buy Maryland State Lottery tickets from real winners and collecting the prize herself. It appears that during 5 weeks, Joy Edison received $15,000 from the Maryland State Lottery. It is still unknown how the two villains managed to find owners of winning lottery tickets, and Maryland Lottery officials just said that their organization “complies with all laws and requests from federal and state authorities.” National lottery

Also, it appears that Blackwell and Edison managed to hide “income in the millions of dollars from the illegal sale of heroin in Baltimore City, thus preventing the IRS from properly assessing taxes due and owing the United States.” At least that’s what is written in the indictment. US lottery

The two of them were accused of drug related crimes since last year, but the money laundering accusations are brand new. Even though the police have been suspecting Steven Blackwell for many years, he managed to keep himself out of jail by never giving the prosecutors enough evidence to put him in. At the moment, federal authorities are attempting to confiscate over $10 million from Steven Blackwell.

Besides laundering money through the Maryland State Lottery, Steven Blackwell is accused of using The Venetian casino in much the same way.

“Certainly, if federal authorities asked for information it would be provided,” Ron Reese, a spokesperson for the casino, stated. The Carz Unlimited dealership was also used by Steven Blackwell and Joy Edison. Lottery winning numbers

“To our eyes, it just looks like another transaction,” Alan Shapiro, a chief financial advisor at Valley Motors, stated. “I looked at the deal file and, frankly, everything kind of looked innocent to me.”

Blackwell used checks from Carz Unlimited to purchase a vehicle from Valley Motors. Officials from Valley Motors said that if they had any idea “that would have been money-laundering,” they would have never accepted the transaction.