GEORGIA
A well-known dog-fighting trainer and breeder, who owned Cane Valley Kennels, was sentenced to five years in prison for a multi-state dog-fighting and cocaine trafficking ring, officials announced Wednesday.
Vernon Vegas, 49, of Suwanee, Georgia, was also fined $10,000 fine.
U.S. District Judge Tilman E. “Tripp” Self III sentenced Vegas. Vegas agreed to forfeit $116,819 in cash seized during the investigation.
“Vernon Vegas is being held accountable for his violent, illegal and inhumane actions,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This case illustrates that dog-fighting is intimately connected with the underworld of drugs and organized crime, and that the Department of Justice will investigate and prosecute it to the fullest extent of the law.”
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Vegas, the owner of Cane Valley Kennels, was one of 11 people indicted on federal charges after a major dogfighting and drug distribution operation was busted, Leary said in a news release.
The Journal-Constitution reported that the investigation led to the execution of 15 residential search warrants in February 2020, resulting in the seizure of more than 150 dogs that were kept for organized fighting. The Roberta-based organization’s activities extended into North Georgia, Florida, and Alabama.
“Vernon Vegas has received the maximum prison sentence for training others in the brutal and bloody business of dog-fighting, a world that fosters a multitude of other dangerous criminal activity,” said U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary for the Middle District of Georgia.
According to court documents, law enforcement investigated a criminal organization involved in both cocaine distribution and organized dogfighting based out of Roberta, Georgia, which extended into North Georgia, Florida, and Alabama from May 2019 until February 2020.
In February 2020, law enforcement executed 15 residential search warrants and seized more than 150 dogs that were being used for organized dogfighting.
Between October 1996 and February 2020, Vegas, the owner of Cane Valley Kennels, bred, trained, sold, and transported dogs for the purpose of dogfighting.
These dogs included Grand Champion “Baby Gracie,” Champion “Son of Sam 2XBis,” Champion “Spider,” Champion “Bucky Mike,” Champion “Bear,” Champion “Kocky Mike,” Champion “Fantasmin,” Champion “Julie the Great,” and one-time winner, “Brenda.”
(February 2020 news report)
As part of his business, Vegas designed and offered a seven-week “keep” where he trained dogs for animal fighting ventures, prepared online pedigrees for the fighting dogs bred, and trained at Cane Valley Kennels, officials stated.
He also provided advice to his co-conspirators on how to train dogs for purposes of engaging in animal fighting ventures.
He kept a multitude of training and conditioning equipment including slat mills, chains, a staple gun, hanging weight scales, break sticks, flirt poles, and various medicines to treat injuries or disease sustained by dogs made to fight, according to officials.
Between January 2017 and February 2020, Vegas attended dog fights with co-conspirators Derrick Owens and Christopher Raines at locations in the Middle District of Georgia and advised Owens on various matters related to preparing dogs for animal fighting.