KINGSON – Two Plattekill men were sentenced in Ulster County Court to nine months each in jail for their involvement in what officials said was the largest cockfighting case ever in state history.
Moises Cruz, 71, and Manuel Cruz, 60, the farm manager at CMC Plattekill farm, were also fined $1,500 each and ordered not to possess, work, live and stay in any place where a live animal is kept.
The men were among 70 arrested in “Operation Angry Birds,” a cockfighting ring that extended from Ulster County to Brooklyn and Queens.
Some 4,000 birds were recovered from the farm, which was unregistered since 2010. The farm operated under the guise of a live poultry farm and its owners hid thousands in makeshift cages in the center of the property to avoid detection by neighbors and police Over half of the chickens were roosters, a statistic which authorities said was inconsistent with the operation of a legal poultry farm.
The owner charged rent to board, feed, and care for roosters that were bred and trained for fighting, with blood sport enthusiasts and rooster owners from New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts boarding, training and sometimes fighting their roosters there.
The case was blown wide open when cockfighting events were raided at pet shops in Queens and Brooklyn.
