Two San Bernardino men were sentenced to four months in federal prison for their roles in operating a cockfighting ring for at least a year, federal officials said Monday, Oct. 6.
They are Sergio Jimenez Maldonado, 52; and Cirilo Esquivel Alcantar, 57.
The two men, who were charged along with three other Inland Empire residents last August in connection with a cockfighting ring known as the Duffy Street Property in Muscoy, were also fined $2,000 and will face four months of home detention after they’re released from prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
One defendant from Corona, Isidro Chaparro Sanchez, 59, was earlier sentenced to one month in federal prison. The other two defendants await sentencing in October.
FBI officials monitored the cockfighting ring that operated for at least a year in San Bernardino County before the arrests. The suspects were charged with aiding, abetting, inducing, and willfully causing another person to sponsor and exhibit an animal in an animal fighting venture, according to a 2024 news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
County animal control officials seized more than 200 birds from the ring, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
During “cockfighting season,” typically from January through August, organizers ran the ring most Sundays, according to an investigative affidavit filed with the criminal complaint.
Investigators estimated around 100 people attended a typical cockfighting event, parking in a lot nearly a mile away on Kern Street before they were shuttled to the fighting area.
Attendees paid a parking fee and another fee before entering the area where cockfights were held, where they could also buy concessions from a taco stand and bar, place bets and participate in a raffle, according to the affidavit. Cockfighters also paid to have their roosters in the ring.
From May 2023 through July 2024, a confidential FBI source attended several cockfights at the Duffy Street Property allegedly run and operated by the defendants.
At those events, a suspect allegedly made the property available for an animal fighting venture, collected entry fees from attendees and made announcements. Another suspect allegedly made the parking lot available for attendees, and her daughter collected parking fees, according to the affidavit.
Another suspect allegedly served drinks at the bar and collected entry fees, while one defendant allegedly collected cockfighter entry fees and another refereed fights, according to the affidavit.
Cockfighters paid $1,000 to enter four roosters in fights, and attendees paid $40 to enter the arena, according to the affidavit. At each event the source attended, patrons typically paid $20 to park and an additional $40 to enter the arena.
The FBI’s source said that people hosting the fights earned around $80,000 to $90,000 each month. The source said they were at the arena at a May event for about nine and a half hours with cockfights going on for most of the event, according to the affidavit.
