On Saturday night in the Cuba Creek district of Limon, officers from Fuerza Publica and members from tactical support units raided a locale known in that Caribbean rural community as a venue for cockfighting and gambling. The officers descended upon the property and surprised about 100 spectators and gamblers.

Fuerza Publica rescued 55 gamecocks from the operation, made one arrest, and took down information from the many vehicles parked at the venue. The officers also made use of the cages and special bags made by the galleros (gamecock breeders and trainers) to transport the animals to the main precinct in Limon. Assistant commander Erick Calderon explained to Telenoticias Channel 7 that the roosters made quite a bit of noise in the precinct, but they had to be kept for the prosecutors as evidence against the arrested man.

According to Diario Extra, officers from the National Service of Animal Welfare (SENASA) were dispatched to the precinct to take proper care of the animals and find them a home.

Cockfighting has been an illegal practice in Costa Rica for a few decades, although it is a lucrative and clandestine activity in rural sectors. Danilo Cubero, a legislator from the Libertarian Movement was impeached by his peers due to his affinity for cockfighting earlier this week. As he left his post, Mr. Cubero alluded to the Tobacco Control and Transit Law enacted by the National Assembly, and his knowledge of legislators who smoke, and also get behind the wheel after a couple of beers.

A previous article in The Costa Rica Star reported on an operation by Fuerza Publica in which ten gamecocks were rescued by officers who followed a tip from a confidential informant. On that case, the officers involved did not have a search warrant, and thus instead of a raid they resorted to old-fashioned police work by establishing a perimeter and interviewing people in the community to locate the animals.

Cockfighting Around the World

• In rural Bakersfield County in California, 75 dead gamecocks were found in an orchard last week.
• At a cockfighting arena in Cotabato, the Philippines, a grenade attack killed 2 spectators and injured 34. An organized crime feud is believed to have been the catalyst of that attack.
• A shooting during a cockfight in Texas left three people dead on April 19.
• In 2010, a manager of a cockfighting operation in South Carolina was sentenced to 21 months after an investigation revealed that about 20,000 roosters perished in fights over an 18 year period.