A judge in Detroit has opened a criminal complaint Wednesday that reveals an illegal gambling operation on a large scale and across multiple states. The operation was led by an elderly couple in Detroit of whom the husband died last month.

The couple ran the casino gambling business for decades from restaurants, shops and houses in Detroit. According to the complaint agents encountered the lottery gambling operation in 2007 when they executed a search warrant at a home in Farmington Hills and expected to find evidence of drug trafficking. Instead, the officers found the suspect, Herbert Lee Daniels as he dropped $25,901 when the police entered the suspects home.

The complaint said: “During questioning about the source of the cash, Daniels stated that the money was from his lottery business.” According to court records, Daniels and his wife, Willie Mae Truvillion, who are in their 70s, ran an illegal lottery based on legitimate lottery numbers. Police have seized several items, including fax machines, fax information about lottery gambling including suspicious code names, names of bookmakers and lists of the lottery numbers of Michigan.

The defendants in the case are Daniels, Truvillion and their son Myron Daniels. The lottery case against Daniels will be dropped as the lawyer of the husband, Cyril Hall said the 70 year-old man deceased from a cardiac arrest. “Herbert Daniels Sr. died one month ago to a broken heart. After his money was taken, he was destitute and he just went into bad health. He had been real sick, then his heart went out.” Hall said.