INDIANAPOLIS - Court documents said the dogfighting ring, based out of the east side of Indianapolis, had been in operation since 2001.
Reports say 7 more people were arrested this week and federally indicted in relation to an ongoing investigation by various federal, state and local law enforcement into an east Indianapolis dogfighting enterprise.
According to a news release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana, the following people were charged with one count of conspiracy to engage in an animal fighting venture:
Ryan Hicks, 37
Willie Lee, 47
Marven Carswell, 71
Ernest Young, 49
Brent Hutchinson, 43
Robert Hamer, 41
Daymond Mason, 49
This comes after a series of search warrants were executed in Indianapolis, Anderson and Muncie on Wednesday.
Law enforcement seized 12 firearms, “significant quantifies” of controlled substances, more than $42,075 in cash, around 75 dogs and dog fighting paraphernalia, according to the news release out of Indianapolis.
Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana confirmed that this was in relation to the September indictments of 21 people in the “34th Street Gangster Disciples,” a reported dogfighting gang in Indianapolis.
Those individuals were charged with drug trafficking and/or dogfighting-related counts at the time.