DUI Task Force = Busted Cock Fight

Washington State Patrol DUI Task Force = One busted Cock Fight.

The state of Washington provides grant money each year to operate DUI task forces in the Lower Yakima Valley. This task force would be operated by mainly WSP Troopers and some county and city officers. One year someone came up with the bright idea of inviting Immigration Special Agents and the Border Patrol! This was quite curious as WSP is strictly forbidden from cooperating with any Immigration Official. Their management gives the excuse that their department was sued a couple of decades before and didn’t want to get sued again. 

I guess the coordinators thought we could translate as we were all bilingual. So Special Agent Abe Gonzales and I along with two special agents from the Yakima Office were invited to ride along with WSP troopers during this emphasis. 

We all met at the Sunnyside Police Department where we were briefed. We were split into teams and assigned to a regular WSP Trooper. Someone asked during the briefing what should be done if we came across an alien illegally in the United   States. The general consensus was that we, the Feds, couldn’t look the other way. 

I guess the officer giving the briefing was unaware of how many illegal aliens were in the lower valley! 

I was assigned to one of the old timers from the lower valley who I knew quite well. Our night started off right with my partner stopping a possible DUI and arresting him. While at the jail processing this subject, one of the Special Agents and his WSP partner came in with three subjects he had arrested at a stop. All three were Mexican Nationals illegally within the country. I am sure his partner wasn’t happy about this but didn’t say anything at the time. 

Back on the street, it was relatively uneventful until we received a backup request call from Yakima County Sheriff’s Department. They were sending a deputy to investigate a possible cock(rooster) fight in the lower valley. We responded!

We timed our arrival so that we all came in at about the same time and boy what a shock that was. As soon as we came through the gate, people ran in every direction. A six-foot-high wooden fence on the back side of the property provided privacy but so many people were trying to get over it that it slowly toppled over, like so many dominos lined up in a row. 

I jumped out of the car and quickly grabbed a couple people, who, not surprisingly, happened to turn out to be aliens illegally within the United States. 

The scene was utter chaos. It reminded me of Spain’s running of the bulls except, in this instance, the bulls were us! There were officers everywhere with subjects in custody and still people suddenly appeared out of a shed or barn, running even though no one was chasing them. 

We were searching a couple of arrestees when two men appeared out of a small, dilapidated trailer on the edge of the property. Both were middle-aged and white. This was surprising as everyone else at this cock fight had been of Hispanic descent. They definitely didn’t fit the profile of the average attendee. I later found out that these were two Washington State Gambling Commission Officers who were filming the cock fight as part of an investigation. 

Lots of money was wagered at these events and I guess they weren’t overly happy that we had ruined their investigation. Then again, I wasn’t overly happy that they could watch this crime being committed and not do anything! 

Inside the barn, where the fighting actually took place, were numerous roosters, many bleeding severely, a few dying and some already dead. It was a shocking sight, and it truly turned all of our stomachs. I knew this occurred but had never witnessed the aftermath before. It was truly appalling scene

We ended up arresting over a dozen people who weren’t quite fast enough and five times that many got away. Every one of our arrestees was illegally within the United States. 

A few weeks later, we received a politically correct thank you from the State of Washington, but Agents able to enforce the Immigration Laws of the United States, were not invited back in the years that followed as it was believed our presence shifted the focus of the task force!