Cockfighting - between 30-40 birds seized
Homestead, FL (US)Incident Date: Saturday, Jan 5, 2008
County: Miami-Dade
Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Efigenio Noriega
Just after 5 p.m. on Saturday, Miami-Dade police officers swarmed to a rural field to reports of gunfire.
They found two dead, bloody victims. Officers chased a mob of suspects and arrested more than 30.
The scene was no homicide.
Rather, Miami-Dade police say, it was one of the biggest surprise busts of a cockfighting ring in recent memory.
Between 30 and 40 roosters were found alive in a pen behind the ring, which was inside a wooden shack hidden by a line of cars. Two recently killed roosters were found on a table outside.
''You could tell they had been alive recently. Fresh blood on their sides and necks,'' said Miami-Dade Sgt. George Llambes, of the organized crimes bureau.
Their bodies, along with the live birds, were turned over to Miami-Dade's animal services department, police said.
Dispatchers fielded the original emergency call: possible shots fired at a isolated farm at 12600 SW 194th Ave.
Officers from Miami-Dade's Hammocks district, aided by a police helicopter, flocked to the farmland. Suspects scattered. Most were caught easily -- they were retired, older men, Llambes said.
''One of the guys that ran took his rooster and he was caught with the rooster. It was kind of funny. He grabbed his rooster and threw it in a box,'' said Miami-Dade Sgt. George Llambes, of the organized crimes bureau.
In all, 37 people were arrested for attending the cockfight, which are illegal in Florida. The charge of fighting or baiting of an animal became a third-degree felony in 2003.
The alleged ringleader is 71-year-old Efigenio Noriega, police said.
Big cockfighting busts are usually limited to extended investigations, Llambes said.
''For being a call-out, it's pretty big. Normally you won't catch that many,'' he said. References« FL State Animal Cruelty Map
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