10:39 AM EST on Tuesday, December 23, 2003

By The Associated Press

SHELBY, N.C. -- Sheriff's deputies have uncovered 75 video poker machines from a Cleveland County warehouse to culminate a weekend investigation.

A county narcotics officer spotted individuals unloading the machines into the warehouse. That was after police received information that individuals were bringing video poker machines into Cleveland County from South Carolina.

Cleveland County Sheriff's Office Captain Bobby Steen says the seizure of the video poker machines, which were being stored in the warehouse, was the most ever of inactive machines in the county. So far, there have been no arrests.

Steen says officers first learned of the video poker machines Saturday when a narcotics officer followed the suspects after they unloaded the machines. That took the officer to a Gaffney, South Carolina, truck stop, where the suspects placed more video machines in a truck. Steen says the machines were then brought to Cleveland County.