Former NFL and college football star running back LeShon Johnson has been charged with running a dog fighting ring in Oklahoma and trafficking animals.
The Department of Justice has accused Johnson, 54, of “possessing 190 pit bull-type dogs for use in an animal fighting venture and for selling, transporting, and delivering a dog for use in an animal fighting venture,” the department said in a press release this week.
A former 1993 Heisman Trophy candidate who played six seasons in the NFL between 1994-1999, Johnson now faces up to five years in prison for each of his charges, as well as a $250,000 fine, according to federal authorities.
The DOJ says it believes the 190 dogs seized from Johnson last October is the most ever seized from a single person in a federal dog fighting case. Federal authorities allege Johnson ran the dog fighting ring under the name “Mal Kant Kennels” in both Broken Arrow and Haskell, Okla.
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“Johnson selectively bred ‘champion’ and ‘grand champion’ fighting dogs — dogs that have respectively won three or five fights — to produce offspring with fighting traits and abilities desired by him and others for use in dog fights,” the DOJ alleged in its news release. “Johnson marketed and sold stud rights and offspring from winning fighting dogs to other dog fighters looking to incorporate the Mal Kant Kennels ‘bloodline’ into their own dog fighting operations.”
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Johnson’s prolific trafficking of pit bulls “contributed to the growth of the dog fighting industry and allowed Johnson to profit financially,” prosecutors allege.
Johnson previously pleaded guilty to Oklahoma state animal fighting charges in 2004 after he was arrested for running what he called “Krazyside Kennels,” which doubled as a dog fighting ring.
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