DEA officials bust "largest ever" cockfighting arena

Drug Enforcement Administration officials investigating a Mexican drug trafficking ring called the Gulf Cartel found more than they bargained for: a massive cockfighting enterprise that may be the largest ever discovered in the United States.

Eleven people were arrested in Nashville as part of "Project Reckoning, Phase II," with 31 other arrests in Texas, Mississippi, Nevada, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Oklahoma.  (Phase I of the project "led to the seizure of $60 million in drugs, and 175 arrests," the DEA said.)

No word on what will become of the seized roosters, but a life in the ring usually doesn't end well for the birds, according to PETA:

Roosters who are rescued from game farms or cockfights are typically euthanized because, as one official explained, "[T]he only thing they've been trained to do is fight other roosters.... Euthanasia means a humane death — it's not the barbaric, brutal activity inside the pit that they're being raised for."

The Gulf Cartel is responsible for supplying "multi-ton quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana from Colombia, Guatemala, Panama and Mexico to the United States, as well as the distribution of those narcotics within the United States," according to the DEA.

--Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Paul Watson/Los Angeles Times

Comments

[larry jackson]

It seems a little hypocritical to make a call about the quality of the death and death of a chicken.

Who is qualified to speak for the chicken?

[J Allen]

I would think that PETA would know about euthanasia because according to petakillsanimals.com, they kill about 90% of the animals that they take in. You can also bet that if John Goodwin of the HSUS is involved in a cockfighting raid, that 100% of the roosters will be murdered. I believe If I were a Gamecock I would take my 50/50 chance to live through the fight.

[meadow]

Besides the obvious moral depravity of deriving enjoyment from two animals hacking each other to death in a very unnatural way, cockfighting is also offers a haven for lawbreakers of all sorts from drug traffickers to sex peddlers to arms dealers. Curtail the rings and you stop a lot of other criminal activity.