TIJUANA – While the owner of Agua Caliente Casino, Jorge Hank Rhon, was being detained by federal authorities Saturday, its managers were frantically telling employees to deny that live gaming was occurring there.

"'We never had live blackjack here, never played blackjack, never,'" the employees were told to say Saturday according to a group of them who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing their job.

Meanwhile, Hank Rhon's attorney, Óscar Téllez, said his client was flown from Tijuana to Mexico City at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. He said federal authorities refused to receive the injunction he had obtained from a district judge barring his transfer.

Mexican federal law prohibits live games of chance – such as blackjack, poker and baccarat -- save for special events. However, the electronic versions of these games are allowed in casinos, among other types of games.

The employees said that for months live blackjack had been played at Hank Rhon's Caliente Casino at the racetrack and at the casino in the Pueblo Amigo Hotel, both of which draw thousands of visitors each year from both sides of the border.

On Saturday morning, in the gambling houses at those casinos managers called groups of employees to tell them to deny that their clients had played live blackjack or 21.

"They were alarmed, the bosses were worried about Hank Rhon's detention," one employee said.

Another one said that blackjack tables were removed at first hour from the casino at the racetrack.

"I think that everyone believed that Hank Rhon's arrest was somehow related to his casinos' operation, that's why they reacted that way," said another employee.

One of the employees said many of his coworkers believed that live blackjack was legal and were surprised to be told to deny that it was being played.

"It was not a direct threat, even though many of us did feel that the bosses were telling us to say that if we wanted to keep our jobs," the employee said.

Until dawn Saturday, Hank Rhon seemed untouchable.

The owner of gambling establishments in Mexico, Latin America and Europe, as well as hotels, shopping centers and a professional soccer team, he had been elected mayor of Tijuana and had unsuccessfully run for Baja California governor.

He had accomplished all of this despite being investigated for crimes over the years.

In 1988, he was investigated for the murder in 1988 of Héctor Félix Miranda, co-founder of the weekly crusading newspaper Zeta, who had written columns critical of Hank Rhon's lifestyle. The two people convicted of the murder were security guards at the Agua Caliente racetrack.

In 1995, he was detained then released at Mexico City's airport after precious stones, marble artifacts and four tiger fur coats were found in his luggage.

His story took a dramatic turn around 3:30 p.m. Saturday when a special tactical unit of soldiers and federal investigative agents burst into the magnate's home, in the exclusive Puerta de Hierro neighborhood, on the racetrack property, and detained him and ten other people.

According to Mexico's Attorney General's Office, known as the PGR, the team found at the home 40 rifles, 48 guns, 9,298 rounds of ammunition and one gas grenade.

His attorney said that he is being accused of violating federal law regulating weapons and explosives, a crime that does not allow bail.

His wife, María Elvia Amaya de Hank, issued a letter Saturday describing the raid on their home. She said that the soldiers who invaded her home were going to detain her as well but changed their minds once they saw her physical condition.

She has been fighting cancer and recently had a bone marrow transplant.

Hank Rhon was first taken to the PGR office in the Río zone and then moved to the military airport. From there, he was flown to Mexico City and taken to the headquarters of the federal agency known as Siedo, which investigates organized crime.

The detention of Hank Rhon, considered a leading figure in the political party known as the PRI, which dominated in Mexico for decades until 2000, immediately raised questions about its motive and timing.

If for decades he was suspected of breaking the law, why was Hank Rhon arrested now, just as the PRI seemed to leading the ruling party PAN in polls heading toward next year's presidential election?

Did President Calderon's PAN party want to show Mexicans an old guard PRI figure such as Hank Rhon, and tell them, "Look, is this the type of leader you want to return to power?"

On Saturday, the national president of the PRI, Humberto Moreira, said that the party would not permit a witch hunt nor any act of intimidation against its members.

Omar.millan@sandiegored.com