RALEIGH, N.C. -- More than 70 people have been arrested in a cockfighting ring that secretly gathered in central North Carolina to watch a $40,000 tournament.
Deputies didn't expect to find so many people crammed into three chicken houses that had been cleaned out to provide hidden parking spaces and a cockfighting pit, Randolph County Sheriff Maynard Reid said. Authorities arrested 73 people, ranging in age from 16 to 79, and charged them all with felonies for cockfighting and cruelty to animals.
Reid said several others escaped after fleeing through a back door during the raid Jan. 31 at the site about 15 miles southeast of Asheboro.
"I had no idea it would be this large," Reid said. "I've raided these things before and (if) you get 20 or 25 people, you've got a big crowd. I thought that this was unreal."
He described a grisly scene: About 20 birds were already dead, eliminated early from a deadly tournament. A fight was ongoing when deputies arrived, and one of the combatant roosters jumped up onto the betting table and spattered blood onto a search warrant that investigators were serving, Reid said.
The tournament's grand champion, Reid said, was slated to win $40,000. He named the ringleader as 33-year-old Barry Ritter. Reid said Ritter was charging $25 to watch the event at a facility he owned with his father, who was not among those arrested.
"I think it was used at one time to raise chickens," Reid said. "Now it is being used for cockfighting. They had a rural area. They thought nobody would catch them there. But I think we've sent a message that we will not tolerate this in our county."
The sheriff's office said investigators also seized 73 vehicles, two firearms and cash. They also found cocaine and marijuana at the scene. Much of the crowd was Hispanic, and Reid said authorities were still checking the immigration status of those arrested.
The county's animal control officers took possession of 130 live roosters.
North Carolina passed a law in 2005 making cockfighting a felony.
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