29 Animals Rescued By Joliet Police, 2 Animal Torturers With Ties to Mexico Arrested: Press Conference

JOLIET, IL — The Joliet Police Department held a 10 a.m. press conference on Thursday to reveal that 29 animals have been safely rescued from a house in the 400 block of Meeker Avenue and that many of the animals, roosters, were bred and used in the high money underground sport known as cockfighting.

Joliet police chief Bill Evans announced that the two Joliet men arrested on multiple charges of animal torture/cruelty and drug charges are 39-year-old Ronaldo Rodriguez-Gasca and 51-year-old Fortino Rodriguez. Their property in the 400 block of Meeker was the focus of Wednesday's Joliet Police Department raid that recovered a total of 29 animals,

Joliet police said that the animals recovered and turned over to Joliet Township Animal Control consisted of several roosters, hens, chicks and one young terrier puppy.

The Joliet Police search warrant also recovered several equipment items used for deadly high-stakes rooster fights: transporting containers, metal spurs and straps.

"A large number of roosters were in cages and in the backyard," Chief Evans revealed.

He said that the Joliet police investigation initially began as a drug-dealing operation. Then, the scope of the case expanded greatly after the Joliet police detectives and animal rescue officers realized that a rooster fighting operation was taking place in the 400 block of Meeker.

At the press conference, Chief Evans praised the exemplary work of Joliet Police Officer Katelyn Kozielski and Detective Jeremy Eaton.

While standing at the press conference podium, Kozielski revealed that the co-defendants were involved in traveling back and forth to Mexico for the purpose of shipping animals "so the case is going," she remarked.

Kozielski indicated that Joliet police found evidence of a breeding operation involving the roosters on Meeker Avenue. She said that rooster fighting operations typically involve alcohol consumption, videotaping the fights, gambling with lots of money and the ultimate death of some of the roosters who lose the competition.

The winning roosters are used for breeding purposes and traded, she said. "It's a very underground effort," she explained.

Will County Jail logs indicate that at 4:50 p.m. on Wednesday, 39-year-old Ronaldo Rodriguez-Gasca of the 400 block of Meeker Avenue was booked into the county detention facility on charges of cruelty to animals, animal torture, owning animals for sport fighting, three crimes of possession of controlled substances with intent to deliver and two counts of possession of controlled substances.

The Will County Jail did not contain any mugshots for Fortino Rodriguez as of Thursday morning.