Miami-Dade police on Sunday discovered a cockfighting ring in a rural area in the far northwest of the county.
As a result of that operation, a southwest Miami-Dade woman was arrested and charged with taking part in an animal fighting event, news channel Local 10 reported.
Last Sunday, a Miami-Dade Homicide detective called another officer to 18180 NW 129th Ave., a rural property off a dirt road south of the Broward County line.
This detective led the investigating officer to several roosters in cages with shaved feathers, a large cockfighting ring with chairs, and an outdoor viewing platform, all in a makeshift shelter.
“Inside the cockfighting ring, I observed dried blood as well as cockfighting paraphernalia such as spurs and scales near the ring,” the officer explained.
The detained woman responds by the name of Elsa Sastureias, 57, identified as a “waitress” at the property who works for tips.
Sastureias claimed she was a friend of the property owner, but he does not employ or pay her.
The woman was taken to Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where she was being held on $1,000 bail.
The police reportedly obtained a confession from the woman. No other arrests have been announced in connection with the case.
In late December last year, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents investigating a possible kidnapping in southwest Miami-Dade were arrested a man who ran a large cockfighting ring in his home.
Subject identified as Leonardo Cabrera, 59, was arrested following a police raid on his property at 24000 Southwest 123rd Avenue in a semi-rural part of the community of Princeton in Homestead.
There, agents discovered cockfighting equipment, including a ring, as well as paraphernalia common to this type of illegal event, such as syringes and spurs.
Last June, Lázaro Agramonte, a 62-year-old man of Cuban origin, was indicted in the Miami-Dade court Organize cockfights and marijuana possession.
Also at Homestead, at the time of Agramonte’s arrest, they seized fighting cocks and paraphernalia usual for this type of activity, as well as five pounds of marijuana.
Also in April, 47-year-old Cuban Miguel Ángel Rodríguez was arrested after the Kendall General Investigations Unit in Miami-Dade issued a search warrant at his home They found about a hundred roosters.
In this case, the defendant faced several charges of animal cruelty because the authorities found two training rings for bird fights as well as medicines, syringes and spurs on his property in addition to the hundred roosters, some of whom were dead.
Cockfighting is illegal in all US states and Florida is one of 42 US territories where it is a crime.