A federal court in New Jersey convicted the last of a dozen defendants on charges related to a multistate dog fighting ring.
The court sentenced Justin Love, 39, to four and half years in prison and Robert Elliott, 50, and Dajwan Ware, 46, to two years each. All were convicted on felony charges of conspiracy to violate animal fighting laws. Love and Elliott were each convicted on multiple accounts of owning dogs they intended to use in dog fighting.
“Our justice system will not tolerate the torment and death of animals in the fighting ring, as the sentencing in this case demonstrate,” said Jeffrey Bossert Clark, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “Although the one chapter represented by this landmark series of cases has now closed, we will continue to place a high priority on pursuing and prosecuting similar illegal animal fighting ventures across the country.”
The felons ran lethal dog fighting competitions across several states, according to court documents. The men trafficked and trained fighting dogs, and police confiscated equipment such as dog treadmills, IVs used on injured dogs, and “breeding stands” used to hold female dogs in place.
Operation Grand Champion, as the investigation was called, began in 2015 and spanned four different federal jurisdictions.
