Senior Pentagon official Frederick Moorefield was arrested Thursday and charged with furthering a dogfighting ring.
Moorefield, who served as the deputy chief information officer for command, control, and communications for the Secretary of Defense’s Chief Information Office (CIO), was arrested for promoting and furthering a dogfighting ring alongside a longtime friend, Mario Flythe, who allegedly admitted participation in the dog fighting.
The Washington Post reported:
Investigators found battery jumper cables, which allegedly were used to execute dogs at Moorefield’s house, along with five pit bull-type dogs at his house and five pit bull-type dogs at Flythe’s house, court records show. The FBI, the Department of Agriculture and other local and federal agencies raided both houses on Sept. 6, according to a federal affidavit, finding weighted collars and heavy metal chains used to increase fighting dogs’ strength. Authorities said they also found “an apparatus that is used for involuntarily inseminating female dogs” and stains “consistent with bloodstains from dogfights.”
Both men were released after being arraigned.
Lt. Commander Tim Gorman, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday that the Department of Defense was “aware of the criminal complaint” against Moorefield.
“We can confirm that the individual is no longer in the workplace, but we cannot comment further on an individual personnel matter,” Gorman said, although he did not say if Moorefield had been suspended, terminated, or allowed to retire.
An FBI agent noted that authorities have been investigating the dogfighting ring, which called itself the “DMV Board,” for years. Members of the DMV Board had exchanged messages about training fighting dogs, exchanging videos, arranging fights and wagers, and comparing methods to kill dogs that lost fights.
Moorefield has reportedly been involved in dogfighting since “at least 2002.” Flythe and Moorefield were also reportedly “experimenting with different types of performance enhancing drugs to improve [their] chances of winning dogfights.”
Anne Arundel County, Maryland, had received complaints about Moorefield and Flythe for years. In November 2018, the county animal control was alerted to a report about two dead dogs found six miles from Moorefield’s home, according to the FBI agent.
Flythe told FBI agents he engaged in dogfighting in the past and operated under the name “Razor Sharp Kennels.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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