Federal authorities snatch nearly 200 pit bulls in Oklahoma from ex-NFL player in biggest dog-fighting seizure

March 25 (UPI) — A former NFL player in Oklahoma was accused of allegedly running a large-scale dog fighting and trafficking business with nearly 200 dogs seized in a sting.

LeShon Eugene Johnson, 54, of Broken Arrow, has been charged with multiple violations related to the federal Animal Welfare Act, according to an unsealed grand jury indictment Tuesday by a U.S. district court in Oklahoma’s eastern district.

“Dog fighting is illegal, and courts have upheld its prosecution time and again,” Acting U.S. Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD), stated in a release.

A former player on the Green Bay Packers from 1994-1995, Johnson is charged with possessing, selling, transporting and delivering a dog for use in an animal fighting venture.

Federal authorities say Johnson’s dogs were the highest number ever confiscated from a single person in a U.S. dog-fighting case when 190 pit bulls were seized from his residence in October near E. 41st St. S. and County Line Road in Broken Arrow, the largest suburb in Tulsa.

A former player on the Green Bay Packers from 1994-1995, LeShon Johnson is charged with possessing, selling, transporting and delivering a dog for use in an animal fighting venture. Federal authorities say Johnson’s dogs were the highest number ever confiscated from a single person in a U.S. dog fighting case when 190 pit bulls were seized from his residence in October in Tulsa’s largest suburb. File Photo By John C. Anderson/UPI

He made an initial court appearance last week.

It’s illegal under federal law to fight dogs in a venture that crosses state lines affecting interstate commerce. It’s also illegal to train, transport, deliver, sell, purchase to receive dogs for fighting purposes.

“His trafficking of fighting dogs to other dog fighters across the country contributed to the growth of the dog fighting industry and allowed Johnson to profit financially,” DOJ officials say.

In 1998, Johnson’s career was temporarily interrupted by lymphoma cancer but managed to rebound by 1999 with a spot on the New York Giants. He finished sixth in the 1993 Heisman Trophy voting race but his football career ended in the XFL with the Chicago Enforcers.

He pleaded guilty in 2004 to similar charges as operator of “Krazyside Kennels.”

“This strategic prosecution of an alleged repeat offender led to the seizure of 190 dogs destined for a cruel end. It disrupts a major source of dogs used in other dog fighting ventures,” added DOJ’s Gustafson.

According to new court documents, Johnson ran at least two dog fighting operations called “Mal Kant Kennels” in Haskell, where he was born, and his town of Broken Arrow with its more than 113,000 residents in Tulsa County.

In February, authorities likewise seized 10 pit bull dogs when a Florida man was sentenced to seven years in prison for a felony gun possession charge and conspiring to operate a dogfighting ring in Massachusetts, Florida and Connecticut.

Meanwhile, a former official in the U.S. Department of Defense in December was sentenced to 18 months in a federal prison for participating in a multi-state dogfighting conspiracy in brutal fights which abused and killed the dogs, and a man was slapped with 46 months in jail in a separate case in July 2023.

The FBI’s office in Shreveport, meanwhile, has been investigating Johnson’s case.

Johnson, if convicted, faces a maximum penalty on each count of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.