A Wicked Deal For Tickets

A wicked deal for tickets
Black markets taking root around famed theme parks
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press

ORLANDO, FLA. - Roberto Alvarez was jealous of the amount of time his girlfriend spent with the head of a crime family that dealt in millions of dollars of contraband, so he became a confidential informant for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
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Not long after talking with the agents, the 38-year-old Alvarez was shot to death; his body was found near the bus he drove in his job shuttling tourists to the theme parks.

If it had been guns or drugs that Alvarez was snitching about, his unsolved murder would have had a familiar ring. But, in an only-in-Orlando scenario, Alvarez was helping investigators track down theme park tickets illegally purchased with fake or stolen credit cards.

A black market for park tickets has grown up in this theme park mecca. Detective Kelly Boaz of the Orange County Sheriff's Office said it's a multimillion-dollar business.

This underground market is an unintended consequence of annual ticket-price increases and the popularity of multi-day passes that have made the tickets very valuable. A single-day ticket to a park costs almost $60, while a four-day park hopper, granting entry into all four Disney parks in Orlando, can cost $220 a person.

The black market also has been fueled by the proliferation of booths selling discounted tickets.

The area's major theme parks � Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld Orlando � often sell tickets discounted 10 percent off the gate price to time-share companies, AAA and other tourism-related businesses. International tour companies get an even better deal � as much as 20 percent off the gate price.

But those 20 percent-off contracts are limited and coveted. So companies, in violation of their agreements with the parks, often sell their tickets to middlemen brokers or to booths that can't get the discount.

Some of the shady ticket dealers sell multiday park tickets to tour groups at discounted prices, provided the groups bring back the passes at the end of a single day. The passes are then resold at discount the next day. Others, known by the police as "walkers," target tourists, selling multiday park passes that have days already used up, Boaz said.

Law enforcement agencies have tried to stop black market ticket brokers much like they would drug dealers.

Alvarez started talking with authorities in 2000 about schemes run by Victor Aquino, who used fake or stolen credit cards to purchase park tickets.

The operation was made up of Aquino's family members and associates. It included Aquino's teenage son, Amin, who along with a former pizza cook, Mario Locasio, would buy tickets with stolen or fake credit cards provided by Victor Aquino. Aquino would sell the tickets to Roberto Alvarez's girlfriend, Marilu Clement, who then supplied brokers like Franklin Fox or travel agencies, according to depositions. Fox was once described by law enforcement as the ringleader of illegal ticket brokers.

Alvarez was gunned down in July 2001. The group's schemes fell apart as its members, one by one, were arrested in 2002.

Clement, who is serving probation for fraud, claimed she never knew the tickets were purchased with bad credit cards. Amin Aquino was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for fraud, while his father, Victor, was sentenced to 5 1/2 years for trying to run over a sheriff's deputy with a Mercedes.

Alvarez's murder may be an extreme case, and authorities won't comment on it since the case is still open and unsolved.

Fox pleaded no contest to two counts of petty theft last year and was sentenced to a year of probation, which was terminated in June. He denied dealing in stolen tickets and said he made a plea to avoid a trial.