ROBERTA, Ga. — A Suwanee man who owned a dog kennel in Macon was sentenced to prison for his role in a multi-state dog fighting and cocaine trafficking ring.

Vernon Vegas, 49, was sentenced to the statutory maximum of five years in prison in a federal court hearing Tuesday. He previously owned Cane Valley Kennels in Roberta, Georgia.

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Vegas pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to participate in an animal fighting venture. His plea agreement also requires him to forfeit the $116,819 in cash seized in the case.

He was arrested in February 2020 in a wide-ranging, federal investigation that extended into Alabama, Florida and North Georgia from May 2019 through February 2020.

Investigators were able to prove that Vegas was part of a ring that was involved in both cocaine distribution and organized dog fighting.

While serving warrants in 2020, law enforcement officers seized over 150 dogs that were being used for organized dog fighting. They also recovered a variety of tools that are commonly used to train and prepare dogs for fighting.

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The warrants said Vegas trained the dogs for animal fighting at the Roberta-based kennel. They said he provided a seven-week “keep” where he would train the dogs for fights and prepared on-line “pedigrees” for them.

Two other men, Derrick Owens and Christopher Raines, were indicted together along with Vegas.

“Vernon Vegas has received the maximum prison sentence for training others in the brutal and bloody business of dog fighting, a world that fosters a multitude of other dangerous criminal activity,” said U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary. “Our office, working alongside local, state, and federal law enforcement, will hold individuals and groups that participate in illegal dog-fighting, accountable for their crimes.”

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