‘Drugs, guns, money and dogs’: Officials bust dog fighting ring in Pinellas County

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A joint investigation by the St. Petersburg Police Department and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in connection to drugs and a dog fighting ring netted at least 11 arrests.

“Operation Pedigree” stemmed from a narcotics investigation in November 2023, St. Pete Police Chief Anthony Holloway said in a news conference Tuesday. Officials said the operation resulted in “multiple arrests and the seizure of drugs, guns, money and dogs.”

Detectives discovered in April that a “known fentanyl dealer” was also involved in a dog fighting ring in several Florida counties and Georgia.

Video of a police raid showed the conditions the dogs were being housed in. The video showed dogs kept in kennels that appeared to crowd the inside of a home and the backyard.

St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway also showed two photos of one dog, taken a year apart.

One photo showed a cute, small puppy on the day it was adopted from a local animal shelter. The next photo, of the same dog, taken one year later shows a dog suffering from horrific wounds after it was used as a “bait dog” in fights.

Chief Holloway says spectators would pay $200 to attend the cruel fights and then wager large amounts of illegal drugs to gamble on the outcome.

In total, 111 dogs were seized as part of the investigation, in addition to guns, drugs and money connected to the operation.

“These narcotics are about more than just narcotics,” Holloway said. “It has to do with human trafficking, it has to do with our shootings. It has to do with any crime you can predict in Pinellas County. It goes back to those drugs.”

Six people were charged with animal baiting and fighting, as well as a conspiracy charge related to gambling.

Six people were “rescued from human trafficking” at one of the homes searched, Holloway said. Five others present in the home were charged with trafficking fentanyl.

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