Nearly each Sunday from the beginning of the 12 months into the summer season, dozens of individuals gathered at a property on Duffy Avenue in San Bernardino County, authorities stated, frequenting an unlicensed bar and a taco stand.
However the primary attraction was playing on roosters, which federal authorities stated have been made to struggle — typically to the loss of life — in an enviornment whereas sporting sharp blades generally known as “gaffs” on their legs.
The final occasion on the property this previous Sunday ended abruptly with the arrests of 4 Inland Empire residents, who at the moment are charged with involvement in a bootleg animal preventing enterprise.
An almost yearlong FBI investigation led to the arrests of Isidro Chaparro Sanchez, 59, of Corona; Luis Octavio Angulo, 61, of Rialto; Sergio Jimenez Maldonado, 51, of San Bernardino; and Eva Anilu Pastor Uriostegui, 53, of Moreno Valley, who allegedly organized and ran the cockfighting occasions in Muscoy, in response to the U.S. legal professional’s workplace. Every made an preliminary courtroom look Thursday in Riverside and have been ordered launched on bond.
Authorities are nonetheless trying to find Cirilo Esquivel Alcantar, 56, of San Bernardino, who is also charged with involvement within the cockfights. Courtroom data don’t point out whether or not any of these dealing with fees have retained attorneys.
The FBI had been investigating the cockfighting enterprise since Might 2023, C.J. Sanders, a particular agent for the bureau, stated in an affidavit filed in federal courtroom. Sanders stated two confidential sources infiltrated occasions throughout cockfighting “season,” which generally runs from January to August.
Attendees would pay $20 to park at lots lower than a mile from the property and be shuttled to the house on Duffy Avenue, the place they might pay one other price to enter the sector the place the fights unfolded, in response to Sanders. They have been in a position to place bets on fights and take part in a raffles, with a set of gaffs provided because the prize.
Amongst these arrested, authorities say Sanchez made the property obtainable for the fights, collected entry charges and made bulletins throughout occasions; Alcantar made lots obtainable for attendee parking; Uriostegui collected entry charges and served drinks on the bar; Angulo collected the entry charges from handlers getting into their roosters; and Maldonado refereed the fights.
One of many FBI’s confidential sources, who’s unnamed within the affidavit, reported arriving on the property round 7:20 a.m. on a Sunday in Might 2023. A video recording the supply took captured a taco stand — with the signal “RICOS TACOS ESTILO RANCHO” above it — on the entrance to the sector and a bar inside the place attendees might purchase drinks, in response to the affidavit.
Handlers have been charged $1,000 to enter 4 roosters within the fights. They introduced the birds right into a preventing ring surrounded by chairs with a hard-packed dust ground enclosed by plywood, in response to Sanders.
The confidential supply reported listening to that the hosts on the property profited about $80,000 to $90,000 per 30 days.
A second confidential supply positioned a recorded name to a person who stated he owns about 100 roosters, which he dropped at California from Texas, in response to the affidavit.
One other particular person concerned within the cockfights advised that supply that he and and one other particular person bought their preventing roosters from Oklahoma and so they have been shipped to California by airplane.
The second confidential supply reported he was advised the cockfighting had began on the property in 2022.
If these charged are convicted, every might resist 5 years in jail. They’re set to be arraigned on Sept. 3.
