Pentagon Official Charged With Running Dogfighting Ring

Leah Barkoukis | October 03, 2023 7:30 AM

A senior communications official at the Defense Department allegedly took part in an illegal dog fighting ring for more than two decades in the Washington, D.C. area.

Maryland resident Frederick Douglass Moorefield Jr., a deputy chief information officer for command, control and communications for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and an associate, Mario Damon Flythe, 49, also of Maryland, were arrested and charged with “promoting and furthering” a dog fighting venture, the Department of Justice said in a release on Monday.

The two used an encrypted messaging app to discuss their operation, dubbed “the DMV Board,” with individuals across the U.S., including how to train dogs for the fights. They also shared videos about dogfighting, planned the events and bet on them, shared media reports about people who were caught, and communicated about how to keep their operation hidden from law enforcement.

Authorities recovered 12 dogs at Moorefield and Flythe’s residences and found veterinary steroids, training schedules, a bloodied carpet, and a “device consisting of an electrical plug and jumper cables, which the affidavit alleges is consistent with devices used to execute dogs that lose dogfights,” the DOJ said.

Anne Arundel County authorities had received complaints about Moorefield and Flythe for years, and in November 2018 the county animal control was alerted to a report of two dead dogs in a plastic dog food bag in Annapolis, about six miles from Moorefield’s home, Daly wrote. In addition to the dogs in the bag, investigators found mail addressed to Moorefield, Daly’s affidavit stated.
When Daly spoke to Moorefield on the day of the raid, he acknowledged that he operated under the name “Geehad Kennels,” and that local animal control and law enforcement had previously visited his property, the affidavit states. Flythe told another FBI agent that he used the name “Razor Sharp Kennels” and “admitted to having engaged in dogfighting in the past.” (The Washington Post)