How many cockfights can go on beside I-20 before one gets busted?

Sheriffs in 0ffice for 23 of 25 years have yet to bust a cockfight at a known location

STANTON,  Texas––Concern over the role of cockfighting in spreading the H5N1 avian influenza may have helped to instigate recent locally initiated cockfighting busts in Washington,  Kansas,  New Jersey,  and Ohio, but Sheriff Randy Cozart,  63,  of Martin County,  Texas,  does not appear to have gotten the memo.

(See Trump administration plan to fight H5N1 ignores cockfighting.)

            The peckerheads were allegedly at it again on March 1,  2025,  Showing Animals Respect & Kindness founder Steve Hindi notified Cozart at 2973 I-20 Service Road,  just southwest of Stanton,  Texas,  at geo coordinates 32.1004, -101.8718,  visible on Google Earth at
https://maps.app.goo.gl/WzEU5wEyJqrNvywd7.

No bust followed

Showing Animals Respect & Kindness also posted the location information extensively to social media.

But no bust followed.

Emailed Hindi to Cozart on March 4,  2025,  “You and I have spoken by phone about this location in the past.  You know about it,  as did your predecessor,  Sheriff Brad Ingram.

“Regardless,  the illegal cockfight pit is still running.  Last Saturday night,  I was one of numerous people who called your office to report it.  The difference between me and others who called is that I was actually watching it in real time.

“Either way,  it’s corruption”

“I have attached a couple of images for you to review,”  Hindi told Cozart.  “The first is an infrared image showing a large number of vehicles.  There were plenty of criminals to arrest,  had your deputies been inclined to do their sworn duty.

“The second is of a cockfighter holding a rooster.

“At no point did your deputies show up,”  Hindi reminded Cozart.  “The event shut down early either because my organization posted news about it online,  or worse,  because your office called them and told them to stop for the night.

“Only you know,”  Hindi charged,  “if your officers simply refused to act,  or if they are actually working hand in hand with the criminals.  Either way,  it’s corruption.

“Copying others”

“I am copying others in the Martin County court system,”  Hindi said,  “so that everyone will know that there is a long-running,  criminal operation known to your office,  and like Sheriff Ingram, you are doing nothing.

“Within a few days,”  Hindi pledged,  “we will post video documentation.

“I will also be contacting state law enforcement and the FBI.

“Sheriff Cozart,”  Hindi concluded,  “you gave me your personal assurance that this illegal operation would not be allowed to continue under your administration.”

Location should have been familiar

The address of the alleged illegal cockfight,  owned according to public records by Sonia Guerrero Perez,  65,  should have already been familiar to Cozart,  Martin County sheriff for two four-year terms from 2001 to 2009,  returned to office by the voters in November 2024.

The address appears to have been the same location that Martin County and neighboring Midland County sheriff’s deputies raided on January 31,  2009.

The team reportedly confiscated $88,000 in cash and illegal drugs including cocaine,  making 83 arrests,  including several arrests of alleged illegal immigrants.

Impounded were 39 vehicles and 105 gamefowl.

“Get Martin County back to a drug-free zone”

A follow-up bust at a different location,  on March 6,  2010,  brought nine arrests,  impounding eight gamecocks and $2,000 in cash,  reported Audrie Palmer for the Midland Reporter-Telegram.  Four children were also found at the scene.

Cozart,  however,  had moved on.

Leaving the Martin County sheriff’s department to work for “a major oilfield company and as a deputy with the Andrews Sheriff’s Department,”  53 miles west,  Cozart returned to head the Martin County sheriff’s office in 2024 on a pledge “to get Martin County back to a drug-free zone.

“When was the last drug bust in Martin County?  I’ll tell you when,”  Cozart said.  “It was late 2006 when I headed the drug bust as sheriff.  It resulted in 12 arrests right here in Stanton.  Marijuana,  cocaine,  and heroin.”

Problematic sheriff,  but busted two cockfights

Apparently Cozart overlooked the cocaine found during the 2009 cockfighting raid.  But Cozart was not the Martin County sheriff then,  having been succeeded by John Woodward II.

After participating in what appear to be the only two cockfighting busts on record in Martin County,  Woodward resigned in December 2014,  after the Odessa American reported that a former deputy testified that Woodward had received a tattoo from an inmate in his office while the two were drinking in March 2013,  the Midland Reporter-Telegram summarized.

Indicted on October 26,  2018 for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and family violence,  Woodward pleaded guilty to the family violence charge on June 18,  2019.

Next sheriff ran on pledge to make sure neighboring sheriffs “don’t overstep their boundaries”

Brad Ingram,  then a Martin County sheriff’s deputy,  became sheriff upon Woodward’s resignation.

Completing the last two years of Woodward’s term,  Ingram,  ran for re-election on March 5,  2024 on a platform including the odd phrase that “Serving as Martin County sheriff can be challenging,  especially with the task of making sure Midland and Big Spring,”  two neighboring jurisdictions,  “don’t overstep their boundaries.”

Both local cockfighting busts executed during Woodward’s two years in office involved both Midland and Martin counties.

But Ingram did have a chance to lead a cockfighting bust of his own.

“It appears the cockfighters were tipped off”

Hindi and others with Showing Animals Respect & Kindness on March 24,  2024 tried unsuccessfully to motivate Ingram to respond to an illegal cockfight also allegedly held at 2973 I-20 Service Road,  geo coordinates 32.1004, -101.8717.

“Your office was called,”  Hindi emailed to Ingram on Monday morning,  March 26,  2024, “and the pit location was given to your dispatcher.  A number of additional calls were made in an attempt to initiate police action,  but the cockfight was not busted.

“In fact,  it appears the cockfighters were tipped off,”  Hindi charged,  “as after some time,  they abruptly ended their illegal cockfight and took off well before their planned conclusion.”

48 cockfighting indictments in New Jersey

Elsewhere on the cockfighting front,  an Atlantic County,  New Jersey grand jury on February 27,  2025 announced the indictments of 48 suspects “in an alleged cockfighting ring that was broken up by authorities in Atlantic County last year,”  reported Nicolas Fernandes of NJ.com.

“Detectives started investigating the operation when they found digital invitations to one of the fights,  which was scheduled for March 2024,”  wrote Fernandes.

“The invitations eventually led investigators to an arena in Galloway where the events were being held, the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office said.”

Fifty-two suspects were arrested at the scene,  50 gamefowl were impounded,  and cocaine and $37,000 in cash believed to be the proceeds of gambling were also reportedly seized.

Organizer copped a plea

“The organizer of the fights,  Jose Madera,  33,  of Egg Harbor City,  pleaded guilty to multiple counts of animal cruelty,  resisting arrest by flight and other charges in August 2024, according to the Press of Atlantic City,”  Fernandes recounted.

Four dogs “kept in what prosecutors described as ‘deplorable conditions’ were also impounded,”  Fernandes said.

In Ohio,  reported Mercy Sackor of WEWS News,  alleged cockfighting operations  were busted in Grafton on February 25,  2025,  impounding 21 gamecocks;  Wakeman on February 27,  2025,  where more than 265 animals were impounded,  including more than 100 gamefowl;  and Sheffield Township on February 28,  2025,  bringing impoundments of 131 gamecocks,  97 hens,  five rabbits,  three dogs,  and four pigeons.

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