Data officer Frederick Douglass Moorefield Jr. allegedly dosed his pit bulls with steroids and skilled them to kill
A senior Pentagon officer has been charged with taking part in a canine preventing ring after police raided his residence and located veterinary steroids, blood-stained carpets, and a crude electrical gadget used to execute animals that misplaced fights. 5 canines had been reportedly taken from his residence.
Frederick Douglass Moorefield Jr. and an alleged confederate had been arrested final month and charged with selling and furthering an animal preventing enterprise, in response to a press launch printed by the US Division of Justice on Monday. They had been launched pending trial on Thursday.
In keeping with the press launch, Moorefield and his co-defendant used an encrypted messaging app to speak with different dog-fighting trainers, coordinate bouts, and focus on how one can hold their actions hidden from regulation enforcement. Moorefield used the title “Geehad Kennels” to determine his dog-fighting operation, whereas the confederate, named as Mario Damon Flythe, referred to as his operation “Razor Sharp Kennels.”
Regulation enforcement officers raided Moorefield’s and Flythe’s residences in early September, recovering a complete of 12 canines. 5 “pit bull-type canines” had been taken from Moorefield’s property, the Washington Submit reported on Monday, citing an FBI affidavit filed in assist of the indictment.
A search of Moorefield’s residence additionally uncovered “veterinary steroids, coaching schedules, a carpet that seemed to be stained with blood,” and “a tool consisting of {an electrical} plug and jumper cables … used to execute canines that lose dogfights,” the Justice Division said.
Previous to his arrest, Moorefield labored as a deputy chief data officer for command, management and communications for the Secretary of Protection’s Chief Data Officer. In keeping with the Pentagon’s web site, his place has since been crammed by Kevin Mulvihill in an “performing” function.
A Pentagon spokesman advised the Washington Submit that Moorefield was “now not within the office,” however didn’t say whether or not he had been suspended, fired, or pressed to retire.
The FBI had been investigating the dog-fighting ring for a number of years and 9 members had been arrested and charged final 12 months, in response to the affidavit cited by the Submit. Eight of these charged pleaded responsible and cooperated with the investigation, turning over data that confirmed Moorefield’s involvement in dog-fighting since a minimum of 2002.
Native authorities in Maryland had obtained complaints about Moorefield and Flythe for years. Animal management officers had been alerted in 2018 when two lifeless canines had been present in a plastic bag close to Moorefield’s residence together with mail addressed to the previous Pentagon official.
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