Federal officials investigating a fraud case on May 12, 2005 stumbled upon what authorities believe is a dog-fighting operation. Winnebago County Animal Services seized 18 pit bulls from a house.
Authorities, including U.S. Secret Service agents from Chicago, were at the home for about five hours Thursday morning. They say they also discovered more than 500 grams of marijuana and brass knuckles, and they opened an investigation into illegal animal breeding and fighting.
Officials found what they believe is a pit bull fighting ring in the basement, veterinary supplies and computer equipment containing information about the sale and purchase of animals.
Secret Service and Winnebago County sheriff's police arrested David Fisk, 39, Rodrigo Campos, 33, and Alejandro Campos-Rivera, 32.
Fisk was arrested on a federal warrant for conspiracy to commit credit-card fraud and identity theft. He was taken into federal custody. Campos of Palatine was arrested on Winnebago County charges of manufacturing and delivery of marijuana, and unlawful sale or use of a weapon. He is in the Winnebago County Jail on $50,000 bond.
Campos-Rivera of Streamwood was arrested on outstanding Ogle County charges of contempt and unlawful possession of marijuana. He is in the Ogle County Jail on $2,500 bond and an additional $446 full-cash bond. No charges have been filed in the dog investigation.
"We're going to follow this investigation where it takes us," said Winnebago County Animal Services Director Gary Longanecker. "We have a large amount of evidence that needs to be reviewed."
Longanecker said his investigation is separate from the federal fraud case and state drug and weapons charges. He estimates that the initial investigation will take one to two weeks to complete, then the case will be turned over to the Winnebago County state's attorney's office.
Longanecker said the 18 pit bulls taken from the home appear to be in good physical condition. Part of the investigation will include examining the animals for old wounds. Ownership of the animals has not been determined. The animals will be kept at the Winnebago County Animal Services shelter, pending the investigation.
Winnebago County Sheriff Chief Deputy Roger Costello said county deputies went to the home with Secret Service agents to assist in Fisk's arrest. Costello said Fisk consented to a search of the home. Costello said sheriff's deputies then took Campos and Campos-Rivera into custody and called Animal Services.
"We don't know the whole story there, but there was evidence that pit bulls may have been trained and sold there," Costello said. "The computers, which we took, showed breeding procedures."
According to a criminal indictment filed in Rockford's federal court, Fisk allegedly gave a credit-card skimming device to a Darien gas station attendant who used the device to "capture" customers' credit-card information and gave the device back to Fisk. The indictment states that Fisk then took the information and made counterfeit credit cards and gift cards, and obtained money and goods from stores and banks. The indictment also alleges that Fisk took customer information from a Rochelle car dealership employee and applied for fictitious business credit-card accounts.
The crimes allegedly took place over a one-year period.
"We continue to assist area law enforcement in removing animals from areas where police action has taken place," Longanecker said. "Today has been a very busy day for law enforcement." Case UpdatesSix of the 18 pit bulls taken from the home were stolen from their cages at the Winnebago County Animal Services shelter. 30-year-old Jason Mitsias of Streamwood has emerged over the past few days as "a person of interest" in the Winnebago County investigation because of his ties to the county, the men arrested in the case and the strikingly similar dog-fighting operation and shelter break-in in Lake County in 2002. Winnebago County sheriff's deputies went looking for Mitsias.
Mitsias and his father, Arthur Mitsias, not only pleaded guilty to animal cruelty for staging dogfights in Lake County, but Jason Mitsias also was a main suspect in the mysterious break-in at the Lake County Animal Services shelter days after 15 dogs were taken from the Mitsiases' Lake County home. Two dogs were stolen during the break-in.
"Mitsias was a suspect, but we never were able to find out who did it," said Leslie Piotrowski, a Lake County Health Department spokeswoman.
No one has been charged in the Winnebago County break-in last week or any alleged illegal dog breeding or fighting activity at Mitsias' mother's home. Authorities have yet to find the missing dogs. Still, ties remain between Mitsias and the charges that have been filed.
One of the dogs seized in Mitsias' Lake County case was believed to belong to Rodrigo Campos, 33, of Palatine. Campos was one of the three men arrested on drug charges last week at the West State Street home.
"There also was a significant amount of marijuana in our case," said Mary Stanton, chief of the misdemeanor division of the Lake County state's attorney's office. "Officers found a bunch of medical supplies on the front porch. They found one of those homemade treadmills and hook from ceiling that they use to strengthen their bite."
Mitsias is in the DuPage County Jail on various drug charges, one of which is possession and intent to deliver the marijuana recovered at the West State Street home.
"I think we've got all we can get on the drug charges, and we're working the burglary at the shelter," said Winnebago County Sheriff Dick Meyers. "The arrests we made on West State Street and the break-in ... we believe those are one and the same."
David Fisk, one of the three men arrested last week, appeared in Rockford's federal court Monday afternoon. The 39-year-old was denied bail. An arrest warrant for Fisk on federal fraud charges brought U.S. Secret Service agents and county deputies to the West State Street address Thursday morning.
After court Monday, Fisk's attorney, Donald Sullivan, said authorities are "making a lot of allegations. ... My client denies that there was a fighting ring. He is not in that business. He doesn't fight dogs. He raises dogs and takes in orphaned dogs.
"He has roommates," Sullivan said. Sullivan said one of the roommates is believed to be Mitsias. | Source: Rockford Register Star - May 17, 2005
Update posted on May 18, 2005 - 1:06AM |
The thieves who broke into the Winnebago County Animal Services shelter early Friday weren't looking to rescue the family pet or ransack the place for cash.
They were looking for six pit bulls seized less than 24 hours earlier during a federal raid that exposed what officials believe is a massive illegal breeding, training and fighting operation run out of a home.
Experts say the theft of fighting dogs happens all the time to prevent prosecutors from using them as evidence in criminal cases and to recover animals that can earn thousands of dollars for their owners.
"It's a common tactic that dog fighters will use," said Chris Sanford, a senior patrol officer with the Galt Police Department in California and a leading national expert on illegal animal fighting.
County officials believe more than one intruder broke a window in the shelter's confinement area, removed six specific pit bulls from an array of more than 50 dogs in cages and left. The missing dogs have males and females among them and arrived Thursday morning at the shelter.
County officials said the burglary was anything but random.
"They came in and they said, 'I want that one and that one.' And then they came over here and they said, 'I want that one and that one,' '' Animal Services Deputy Director John Genens said. "They wanted specific dogs back that were worth a lot of money to them."
Animal Services officials believe the break-in took place between 3 and 6 a.m. May 13. An Animal Services officer, working the overnight shift, put a dog into the confinement area around 3 a.m. and didn't notice anything wrong, Director Gary Longanecker said. Shelter employees arriving at 6 a.m. noticed the broken glass and missing dogs and called police.
Federal agents and Winnebago County Sheriff's deputies stumbled upon the alleged operation Thursday morning when they went to a home to arrest a man on charges of credit-card fraud. Authorities discovered the man, two other men, more than 500 grams of marijuana, brass knuckles, 18 pit bull terriers and evidence of illegal dog fighting ranging from paperwork and computer files to veterinary supplies, including needles and drugs and a fighting pit.
The three men -- David Fisk, 39, of Winnebago; Rodrigo Campos, 33, of Palatine; and Alejandro Campos, 32, of Streamwood -- remain in custody on fraud, drug and weapons charges. None have been charged for the alleged dog fighting operation. Winnebago County Sheriff Dick Meyers said that investigators were making progress.
"We have spoken to people connected to these people who have been involved with dog fighting," Meyers said Friday night.
"We've spoken with police in other jurisdictions and are gathering more of the same information."
Animal-crime experts say break-ins at shelters to retrieve pit bulls is a calling card of illegal dog fighters.
The dogs can win hundreds of thousands of dollars at illegal fights and earn as much as $2,000 for stud fees if they have good fight records, all of which are kept underground and shared only with people in the dog-fighting community. | Source: Rockford Register Star - May 14, 2005
Update posted on May 14, 2005 - 9:36AM |
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