A Naples man ran an illegal gambling website and bragged to undercover agents about employing a national web of enforcers who collect debts, describing one of his strongmen as a Hannibal Lecter-type who “will eat your face off,” according to an arrest warrant obtained Wednesday.

Thomas Welch, whose Poinciana Drive home was raided by Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents April 9, faces seven felony charges as he sits in a Lee County jail.

In a 24-page warrant, Florida Department of Law Enforcement special agents describe several undercover meetings and communications with Welch, who discussed the operation of his website, alydar653.com, and the network of enforcers he uses to collect on debts. Agents met with Welch at several Southwest Florida locations, including Hooters and South Street restaurants on Pine Ridge Road, through a confidential source who owed Welch about $18,000. The meetings were recorded with audio and video devices, the warrant said.

In their meetings, Welch described a scheme in which he recruits gamblers, then turns them into agents who recruit more gamblers and collect on debts. Welch told agents that he was owed about $800,000 in outstanding debts from hundreds of gamblers who used his website, the warrant said.

Welch repeatedly referred to his enforcers, describing men he knew in Fort Myers’ Dunbar neighborhood and an occasion when one collector showed up at an Orlando man’s bedroom at 2 a.m. to collect debts, the warrant said. At one recorded meeting with the confidential source, Welch brought along a man he called “Tony from Atlanta,” telling the confidential source that Tony “will bite your face off. You now owe him $16,000.”

Read more about this illegal gambling website at Naples News.