Drug Raid Turns Up Cockfighting Operation

Sheriff’s deputies who raided a home Wednesday said they discovered what they had expected after a three-month investigation: a laboratory capable of producing 100 pounds of methamphetamine per week.

What they didn’t expect to stumble upon was a cockfighting operation, complete with a fighting ring, leg knives and about 300 birds.

“They were breeding them there and everything,” Deputy Mark Bailey, a sheriff’s spokesman, said. “They had them in cages and they had them running around the yard.”

Bailey said seven suspects were being questioned at the home in the 12000 block of Osborne Place, about both the lab and the fighting roosters.

He said the lab could produce an estimated $750,000 worth of the synthetic drug in one week and the cocks could raise an unknown amount of money, not only through a portion of the bets placed by spectators but through selling the offspring of prized birds.

Because the deputies had a search warrant only for suspected drug production, and not the cockfighting operation, Los Angeles Police Department vice officers were called in to handle the birds, which were found in the LAPD jurisdiction.

Animal control officers planned to take the cocks to a city facility today.

Animal control officials said such birds are commonly held as evidence during the prosecution of cockfighting cases, but they would not speculate on what would become of such a large number of roosters.

Booked on drug charges were Francisco Perez, 32; Luis Perez, 26; Jose Perez, 34; Raul Arevalo, 26; Clementino Carrera, 51; Mario Ibarra, 36, and Erma Arevalo, 30, all residents of the raided home. They were held on $500,000 bail each.

Los Angeles police were still investigating the suspected cockfighting operation. It was unclear whether those charged with the drug offenses would also face animal-cruelty charges.