Cuban arrested for cockfighting in Miami

A Cuban was arrested last Monday in Miami in connection with a cockfighting investigation.

This is Andrés Laguardia de la Vega, 52, who the Miami-Dade police raided his home in the 600 block of Northeast 14th Street where they found three roosters,local media reported.

The animals were individually caged and numbered and had their feathers shaved, the information states.

Police also found a training ring with “rooster shakers” and a small shed containing cockfighting paraphernalia, syringes, steroid medications and shakers.

Laguardia de la Vega returned to the property while the search was taking place and identified himself as the owner of the property.

A woman who lives in an efficiency behind the main house confirmed that the Cuban owns the roosters and has had them for the six years he has lived there.

Laguardia's father, for his part, told detectives that an unknown man pays his son the rent to keep the roosters there.

Laguardia was arrested on charges of possession of animals for fighting, possession of animal fighting equipment and use of property for the use of animal fighting.

On this Cuban's Facebook profile You can see several publications alluding to fighting cocks and claiming their legality.

Last February, Miami-Dade police discovered a cockfighting ring in a rural area in the northwest corner of the county.

As a result of this operation, a southwest Miami-Dade woman was arrested and charged with attending an animal fighting event.

A large cockfighting ring containing chairs and an outside viewing platform was found on the property where the woman lived, all inside a makeshift shelter.

The detained woman responds to the name of Elsa Sastureias, 57, identified as a “waitress” at the property who works for tips.

Sastureias claimed that she was a friend of the property owner, but that he does not employ or pay her.

At the end of December of last year, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who were investigating a possible kidnapping in southwest Miami-Dade ended up arrestinga man who operated a large cockfighting ring in his home.

The subject, identified as Leonardo Cabrera, 59, was arrested after a police raid on his property, located at 24000 Southwest 123rd Avenue, in a semi-rural part of the Princeton community, in Homestead.