Cop apparently tried to forge documents to get witness deported as alleged illegal alien
GULFPORT, Mississippi––Confirmation of probable collusion between cockfighters and elements of law enforcement surfaced in Gulfport, Mississippi on June 1, 2026, days after major cockfighting busts in Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
U.S. Federal Court magistrate judge Bradley Rath denied bond for Hammond, Louisiana police officer Denver Keith Golmon, reported Margaret Baker for the Biloxi Sun Herald, “pending indictment and trial on federal allegations that he retaliated against a witness in a cockfighting investigation in Bay St. Louis and Gulfport.
“During the hearing,” Baker continued, “a Homeland Security Investigations agent testified that Golmon retaliated against a confidential informant by soliciting Hammond officers assigned to immigration enforcement task forces to arrest the informant for an [alleged] immigration violation.
Uncle is convicted cockfighter
“Golmon’s connection to the cockfighting investigation,” Baker detailed, “stemmed from his alleged participation in matches with his uncle, Bert Lester, who was arrested in February 2025 and later convicted for his role in cockfighting derbies held in Harrison County.
“The agent testified that several of Golmon’s gamecocks participated in the matches,” Baker summarized, “although Golmon did not attend the derby where his uncle and others were arrested.”
Golmon, according to Homeland Security Investigations, identified suspected cockfighting informants through the National Crime Information Center database.
Could get 10 years in prison
Judge Rath heard testimony that Golmon also “ran people’s names and Social Security numbers through the National Crime Information Center system to determine what information was available, allegedly for the purpose of creating fraudulent immigration documents for undocumented immigrants,” Baker added.
Golmon, wrote Baker, “is being held on a criminal complaint charging him with retaliating against a confidential informant,” which could bring Golmon “up to 10 years in prison and [a fine of] up to $250,000, plus additional time in prison if he is given an enhanced penalty because he committed the crimes as a law enforcement officer.”
108 alleged cockfighters busted in Mississippi
At least 49 suspects were arrested in connection with cockfighting derbies in Gulfport and Bay St. Louis, Baker mentioned.
Another 59 cockfighting suspects were nabbed on May 31, 2026 in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, almost as far from the Gulfport and Bay St. Louis busts as it is possible to go and remain within Mississippi.
Reported Desmone Mathews for WAPT in Jackson, Mississippi, “Investigators and deputies seized approximately 164 fighting roosters, $84,000 in U.S. currency, 14 firearms, suspected Schedule I narcotics, 13 trailers, multiple vehicles and substantial evidence linked to organized cockfighting.
“The investigation revealed that participants and spectators traveled from Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama and various locations across Mississippi to attend the event.”
Property owner turned himself in
“In addition to the fighting birds,” Mathews recounted, “authorities confiscated equipment and materials used to facilitate cockfighting, including transport trailers, fighting implements, training devices, medications, performance-enhancing substances, scales, tethering equipment, breeding records and other items commonly associated with organized cockfighting.”
Assisting the Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Office with the bust were the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries & Parks, Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement [ICE], U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mississippi Board of Animal Health, and Humane World for Animals, Mathews said.
Property owner Jack Standfield, updated the Mississippi Clarion Ledger on June 2, 2026, “turned himself in on June 1, 2026, admitting to investigators that he allowed the cockfighters to use his land. Bond for Standfield was set at $3,500.
Virginia & Pennsylvania bust cockfighters too
The May 31, 2026 Mississippi cockfighting bust closely followed cockfighting-related busts in Spotsylvania, Virginia on May 29, and Chester, Pennsylvania on May 30.
Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Delbert Myrick told media that 21 roosters, 26 hens, and 80 juvenile chicks were impounded, along with a Great Pyrenees dog, from a home believed by the Virginia Animal Fighting Task Force to be “connected to a cockfighting ring.”
Charges associated with the raid have yet to be announced.
A day later, WPVI television news in Philadelphia disclosed, 25 suspects were arrested at a cockfight in Chester.
“Fifty-two live chickens and three deceased roosters were recovered, according to the Pennsylvania SPCA,” WPVI mentioned.
“Same tired excuses”
Drone investigations by Showing Animals Respect & Kindness [SHARK] in 2019 in Kentucky can be credited with sparking increased anti-cockfighting law enforcement nationwide, largely because drone video repeatedly proved cockfights were underway while local sheriff’s offices insisted otherwise.
Showing Animals Respect & Kindness undercover video also repeatedly documented the presence of off-duty officers providing security at cockfights.
But even as the busts went down in Mississippi, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, Showing Animals Respect & Kindness initially reported getting “the same tired excuses” from the Baldwin, Alabama county sheriff’s office on May 30, 2026, after reporting an “active cockfight underway at a rural location between Bay Minette and Perdido, near the western border of Florida.
(Beth Clifton collage)
SHARK tone changed three days later
A few days later, though, a Showing Animals Respect & Kindness update was much more upbeat.
“We sent a SHARK drone to a cockfight pit near Perdido, Alabama that has a notorious history of more than twenty years of cruelty and death,” Showing Animals Respect & Kindness said. “Now the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Department has begun an investigation that will lead to the permanent termination of this criminal enterprise, because we won’t let go of it until it is gone forever.
“We also called police in Franklin County, Alabama about another long-standing pit which we will see taken down.
“Finally, we called the Kentucky State Police about an active cockfight in Kentucky, and they moved in, filing charges against the landowner,” SHARK said, acknowledging that, “We need to confirm this.”
Apparently hellbent on getting themselves busted, or at least investigated, at least 48 alleged cockfighters identified themselves by name in social media comments responding to the Showing Animals Respect & Kindness messages.
(Beth Clifton collage)
$2 million for animal fighting law enforcement
Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy president Wayne Pacelle was meanwhile optimistic, he emailed to ANIMALS 24-7, that “$2 million in dedicated funding for animal fighting enforcement” will be included in a pending budget bill, H.R. 8646, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agency Appropriations Act, 2027.
The allocation was designated on June 2, 2026 by Congressional Representatives Vern Buchanan, a Republican from Florida, and Troy Carter, a Democrat from Louisiana.
A rare cockfighting bust in Connecticut, Pacelle’s home state, on May 18, 2026 brought a reported 100 arrests, including of property owners Elvin Miranda, 59, and Lisa Miranda, 66, who were presumably read their “Miranda rights” before being charged with cruelty to animals, professional gambling, operating a gambling premise, and risk of injury to a minor.
The Connecticut State Police reported seizing about $90,000 from the Miranda property in Tolland, in northeastern Connecticut.
The Connecticut Department of Agriculture impounded 273 birds, who “were ‘euthanized due to their deteriorated conditions,’ police said,” reported Jennifer Lambert for WVIT in Hartford.
Bullfighting ban in Colombia to stop cockfighting too
Anticipating a national cockfighting ban coming into effect in Colombia in 2028, the Dutch-based anti-blood sports organization CAS International [Comité Anti Stierenvechten], founded in 1993, on May 28, 2026 released undercover video of “what happens inside seven cockfighting arenas and right breeding facilities for fighting roosters across different regions” of Colombia.
“Field investigators infiltrated cockfighting arenas — known as ‘galleras’ — and breeding farms where roosters are raised exclusively for fighting,” CAS International explained in a media release.
The pending Colombian cockfighting ban comes as an extension, CAS International detailed, of the law known as ‘No Más Olé’ passed by the Colombian legislature in 2024, “establishing the end of bullfighting in the country. The law introduced a three-year transition period to phase out these types of spectacles.
(See Colombian top court upholds bans on bullfights, cockfights & steer-tailing.)
Same law bans steer-tailing
“In September 2025,” the CAS International media release continued, “Colombia’s Constitutional Court confirmed the constitutionality of the ban on bullfighting and expanded its scope to also include the cruel events known as corralejas [amateur bullfighting], coleo [steer-tailing], and cockfighting throughout the country. The ban established by this ruling will come into force in 2028.
“Supporters of cockfighting are currently trying to prevent the implementation of the law and weaken the protections achieved for animals,” CAS International said.
“That is why continuing to expose the reality of cockfighting is so important.”
Queensland anti-animal fighting task force dismantled
But even as Colombia moves to end cockfighting, Australian Broadcasting Corporation investigative reporter Eden Gillespie on May 10, 2026 revealed that no criminal charges associated with either cockfighting or dogfighting have been filed in Queensland state since July 2022, not because cockfighting and dogfighting have stopped, but because animal fighters apparently succeeded in dismantling the law and law enforcement task force that formerly brought cockfighters and dogfighters to justice.
“Changes to the Animal Care & Protection Act,” Gillespie explained, “require the Queensland Police and the RSPCA to seek permission from the Department of Primary Industries before prosecuting” alleged animal fighting offenses.
“The dog fighting and cockfighting unit was formed in 2017 and sat within RSPCA Queensland, staffed by three officers,” Gillespie said.
Seized 56 pit bulls & charged 15 defendants
The anti-animal fighting unit led a 2018 raid resulting in the seizure of 56 pit bulls, reportedly the first dogfighting bust in Queensland in more than a decade.
“In the 2020-21 fiscal year,” Gillespie continued, “15 defendants faced 63 charges,” in connection with animal fighting.
In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, however, only six animal fighting charges were filed, against two defendants, Gillespie reported, “according to data from Queensland’s Department of Justice.”
Meanwhile, “An Australian Broadcasting Corporation investigation in 2025 uncovered international links between the underground world of dog fighting and Australia,” Gillespie recounted.
One dogfighter caught on camera “boasted that he had killed ‘more dogs than parvovirus.'”
RSPCA still kept from pursuing animal fighting
In February 2026, Gillespie noted, the Animal Care & Protection Act was amended “so that the Queensland Police Service could independently prosecute under the Act again.”
However, “The RSPCA still needs permission from the Department of Primary Industries to prosecute offenses,” Gillespie said.
“Two former RSPCA inspectors told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that in 2022 they were told by the department not to investigate dog fighting and to refer matters to police,” Gillespie recalled.
“In 2021, the same year the animal fighting unit concluded,” Gillespie added, “there were media reports that a man was sacked from RSPCA Queensland after having a sexual relationship with a woman who was under investigation for alleged involvement in dog fighting.”
Gillespie noted finally that, “In Queensland, organizing and participating in dog fighting carries a maximum penalty of one year’s imprisonment or a $50,070 fine.
“That is below the maximum penalty for animal cruelty, which is three years’ imprisonment or $333,800.”
At that, Gillespie mentioned, “The people behind several of the state’s most high-profile dog fighting cases have served less than half of the maximum penalty behind bars.”
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It’s deeply concerning to see a law enforcement officer allegedly using official databases like the NCIC to retaliate against a witness. While the federal crackdown is a great step forward, what systemic changes or oversight measures are needed within police departments to prevent this kind of collusion with illegal animal fighting rings?
You may remember Peter Tosh, who said, and I paraphrase, that this society is a place where ‘everything that’s right is wrong, and everything that’s wrong is right.’ How very true, and all the more in these deeply disturbing times.
This isn’t new. And it’ll never be old, unfortunately.
Sharing with gratitude.