It is the largest dogfighting operation ever seen in the United States.
The FBI and a team of law enforcement agencies cracked down and arrested 30 people across the U.S., including in Illinois. In addition to the arrests, about 350 dogs -- mostly pit bull terriers -- were seized during early-morning raids from Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Iowa, and Oklahoma. The dogs are now being cared for by local humane societies.
Those arrested face felony charges, and if convicted could face five years in prison and fines of up to $250,000.
The suspects in Illinois include:
William Berry, 34, of Lebanon, Ill.
Derrick Courtland, 42, of Cahokia, Ill.;
John Bacon, 36, Julius Jackson, 40, Joseph Addison, 40, all of East St. Louis, Ill.
They are charged in a criminal complaint with one count of conspiracy to commit unlawful activities of dogfighting.
“Forcing a dog to fight to its death is not a sport,” said John Gillies, special agent in charge of the St. Louis FBI office. “There is nothing respectable about encouraging two animals to torture and dismember each other."
The FBI said the ring was a criminal enterprise that involved drugging the dogs with illegal substances and money laundering.
According the indictments, the defendants acquired, bred and trained pit bull dogs for the purpose of fighting, and denied the dogs adequate medical treatment when injured in the fights and routinely destroyed dogs severely injured in the fighting.
Sometimes the dogs were killed by electrocution.
The fights were often so violent and bloody that some of the defendants were designated as “sponge men” -- they provided sponges to the dogs’ handlers to wipe blood from their dogs or to cool them down during the fight.After a set of fights last April, the indictment said, one of the defendants used a .22-caliber rifle to shoot and kill two dogs who fought but didn’t perform up to his expectations.
The dogs were shot in the head twice, then placed in plastic containers outside the garage where the fights had taken place.
Thanks to a 2007 federal law championed by animal welfare organizations, dog fighting is banned throughout the country and is a felony in all 50 states.
“Dog fighting is an illegal and despicable practice,” an FBI agent said in St. Louis. “We are very pleased with the outcome of the investigation and the way our law enforcement partners worked together.”
