SUWANEE, Ga. - A Suwanee, Georgia man has been sentenced to years in prison after officials say he was found to be connected to a multi-state dog-fighting and cocaine trafficking ring.
Vernon Vegas, 49, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to participate in an animal fighting venture in U.S. District Court and agreed to forfeit over $100,000 in cash that federal authorities seized during their investigation.
Officials say Vegas was arrested as part of an investigation that started in 2019 into an organized ring of dog-fighting and cocaine distribution based out of Roberta, Georgia.
According to investigators, the ring extended into north Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. In February 2020, law enforcement seized more than 150 dogs used in fights during searches connected to the investigation.
Officials accuse Vegas, the owner of Cane Valley Kennels, of breeding, training, transporting, and selling dogs for the purpose of dog-fighting between 1996 and 2020. The dogs had names like Baby Gracie, Son of Sam 2XBis, Spider, Bucky Mike, and Julie the Great.
As part of the business, investigators say Vegas offered a seven-week "keep" where he trained dogs and advised others on how to train dogs for animal fighting. The Georgia man also attended dog fights with his co-conspirators in middle Georgia.
"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."
Vegas was sentenced to the maximum for the statute of five years in prison as well as three years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine.
"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. "Our office, working alongside local, state and federal law enforcement, will hold individuals and groups that participate in illegal dog-fighting accountable for their crimes."
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