Pentagon Official Charged With Running Dog Fighting Ring  – Rolling Stone

A Pentagon official has been charged by federal authorities with “promoting and furthering” an illegal dog fighting ring in Maryland. 

Frederick Douglass Moorefield, Jr., a Deputy Chief Information Officer for Command, Control, and Communications, for Office of the Secretary of Defense, and a co-defendant, Mario Damon Flythe, were indicted on Monday by the Maryland District Attorney’s office. 

According to a Justice Department press release, Moorefield and Flythe “used the encrypted messaging application [Telegram] to discuss how to train dogs for illegal dogfighting, exchanged videos about dogfighting, and arranged and coordinated dogfights.” Additionally, the pair exchanged information on the deaths of animals involved in their operation, gambling on fights, and tactics to evade detection by law enforcement. 

During a search of Moorefield’s Maryland residence, authorities “seized a device consisting of an electrical plug and jumper cables, which the affidavit alleges is consistent with devices used to execute dogs that lose dogfights.” Between the residences of the two men, they also recovered twelve dogs, “veterinary steroids, training schedules, a carpet that appeared to be stained with blood, and a weighted dog vest with a patch reading ‘Geehad Kennels.’”

A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to The Washington Post that Moorefield “is no longer in the workplace,” but would not provide further details on the matter. According to a review of the criminal complaint against the pair by the Post, online records revealed that Moorefield had been involved in dog fighting for more than two decades. Shortly before their arrest, Flythe and Moorefield had allegedly begun “experimenting with different types of performance enhancing drugs to improve [their] chances of winning dogfights.”

In 2022, federal authorities indicted multiple individuals associated with “the DMV Board,” a D.C., Maryland, and Virginia-area dog fighting operation. Moorefield and Flythe operated within the same circles, and had crossed paths with authorities in the past. According to the Post’s review, in 2018 Anne Arundel County animal control received reports of a bag containing two dead dogs, and mail addressed to Moorefield’s home, several miles from his residence. 

If convicted, Moorefield and Flythe each face a maximum five-year sentence.