PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — An Atlantic County grand jury has indicted nearly 50 people in connection with an illegal cockfighting event.
Forty-eight co-defendants were indicted on Wednesday, ranging in age from 24 to 70 and from various parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Galloway Township investigators said they found electronic invitations to an illegally organized cockfight event scheduled for March 2024. Officials managed to stop the event, which was taking place in a specially designed rooster fighting arena. They arrested more than four dozen suspects.
Authorities seized dozens of roosters, many of them injured or mutilated to some degree.
Officials also found four dogs, three of which were kept in “deplorable conditions,” prosecutors said. One dog required emergency life-saving surgery.
The suspects face a number of charges related to animal cruelty.
The alleged organizer of the event, Jose Madera, and one attendee, Roberto Soto, were not included in the indictment as they were both charged separately.