Jermaine Terrell Hadley, Dogfighting Conspiracy, Florida 2023

Eight residents of Gadsden County, Florida have been charged with a string of federal dogfighting offenses following an extensive investigation into a large-scale illegal dogfighting operation.

According to a recent indictment unsealed by the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, Lawrence Keefe, Jermaine Terrell Hadley, 31, of Quincy, Florida, and seven others were charged with 83 counts of federal dogfighting offenses.

The indictment alleges that the defendants were involved in a conspiracy to organize and conduct a large-scale illegal dogfighting operation throughout the Northern District of Florida between 2014 and 2019. Over 100 dogs were used in the operation, and most of them were recovered by the United States Marshals Service and placed with appropriate foster organizations.

Investigators discovered the remains of a recently deceased dog at one of the locations searched, confirming that dog fights were recently held at that location.

The defendants, who include Devar San Jacus Donaldson, 27, Quincy, Florida; Sariem Shanquell McMillian, 23, Quincy, Florida; Randell Lavel Colston, 47, Quincy, Florida; Bob Streets, 35, Quincy, Florida; Zanntayfey Yohoun Bennett, 35, Quincy, Florida; Dennis Lamar Howard, 45, Chattahoochee, Florida; and Leonard Safford, 37, Gretna, Florida, face penalties of up to five years imprisonment and fines up to $250,000, per count of conviction.

The cases were investigated by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a joint federal, state, and local cooperative, which targeted a drug trafficking organization that also allegedly organized and conducted a large-scale illegal dogfighting operation.

The defendants were previously charged with federal drug trafficking offenses in 2019, and the new indictment is a result of an ongoing investigation into the dogfighting conspiracy.

Hadley, Donaldson, McMillian, and Colston were among a dozen individuals indicted on federal drug trafficking offenses in 2019 for allegedly distributing methamphetamine, cocaine, and MDMA throughout the north-central Florida Panhandle between 2018 and 2019.

The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Eric Mountin, and the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida is working with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to pursue the cases vigorously.

An indictment is merely an allegation by a grand jury that a defendant has committed a violation of federal criminal law and is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndfl/pr/8-gadsden-county-residents-charged-83-count-indictment-dogfighting-conspiracy