Raid Reveals Illegal Cockfighting Ring, Several Illegal Drugs
Detectives from Grant County’s Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team (INET), sheriff's animal control deputies, agents from Washington’s Gambling Commission and officers from Quincy Police served a search warrant Wednesday morning in Winchester that resulted in busting an illegal cockfighting ring.
The raid was the product of a year long investigation into an illegal gambling operation that featured cockfighting.
"Once the warrant was served investigators found 13 birds which were physically modified to reduce blood loss during cockfighting," said Kyle Foreman, public information officer.
The handler of the birds had removed the wattle or the comb, the fleshy part on top of their head and below their chin, which holds a lot of blood. The birds were humanely euthanized once found by law enforcement.
Reymundo Garcia, 56 of Ephrata, was booked into Grant County Jail for investigation of running the illegal cockfighting operation, animal cruelty, possession of psilocybin mushrooms and cocaine, and possession with intent to deliver heroin and methamphetamine. The investigation is ongoing.
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