LeShon Johnson, Ex-N.F.L. Operating Again, Ran Main Dogfighting Kennel, U.S. Says

The federal authorities stated this week that that they had damaged up a serious dogfighting kennel in Oklahoma led by the previous Nationwide Soccer League working again LeShon Johnson, seizing 190 pit-bull-type canine in what they described as probably the most ever taken from a single particular person in a federal case.

In a information launch, the Justice Division stated on Tuesday {that a} 21-count indictment towards Mr. Johnson, 54, had not too long ago been unsealed in federal court docket in Muskogee, Okla. He was arrested on March 20 and arraigned the identical day earlier than being launched, in line with court docket paperwork.

Mr. Johnson, who performed for the Inexperienced Bay Packers, the Arizona Cardinals and the New York Giants within the Nineties, is going through felony expenses of possessing and trafficking canine to be used in an animal preventing enterprise. If convicted, he may resist 5 years in jail and a $250,000 advantageous for every rely.

He beforehand pleaded responsible to state dogfighting expenses in 2004 and obtained a five-year deferred sentence.

“The F.B.I. won’t tolerate criminals that hurt harmless animals for his or her twisted type of leisure,” Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, stated in a press release. “The F.B.I. views animal cruelty investigations as a precursor to bigger, organized crime efforts, much like trafficking and homicides.”

Courtney R. Jordan, a lawyer for Mr. Johnson, declined to touch upon Wednesday.

Investigators say that Mr. Johnson “selectively bred ‘champion’ and ‘grand champion’ preventing canine — canine which have respectively received three or 5 fights” as a part of his legal enterprise, which was often called Mal Kant Kennels and was primarily based in Damaged Arrow, Okla., and Haskell, Okla.

He marketed and offered stud rights and offspring from profitable preventing canine to others involving in canine preventing, the authorities stated, selling their bloodlines.

Federal prosecutors stated that that they had obtained textual content messages, emails and cash switch app transactions that present that Mr. Johnson had profited from his dogfighting enterprise.

The variety of canine seized from Mr. Johnson gave the impression to be about thrice the quantity found on the property of one other former N.F.L. participant whose imprisonment on dogfighting expenses dominated headlines within the early 2000s: the star quarterback Michael Vick.

Mr. Johnson was a standout at Northern Illinois College, ending sixth within the Heisman Trophy voting in 1993. He was chosen within the third spherical of the 1994 N.F.L. draft by the Packers, for whom he performed lower than two seasons and struggled to copy his school success. He spent elements of three seasons with the Arizona Cardinals.

In 1998, he signed as a free agent with the Giants, however his profession was disrupted when he was identified that yr with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He scored two touchdowns the following yr after finishing chemotherapy and radiation remedies, The Oklahoman newspaper in Oklahoma Metropolis reported.

His newest arrest on animal cruelty expenses recalled the case of Mr. Vick, the dual-threat quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons whose success within the N.F.L. — guiding his staff to the playoffs and making the quilt of the Madden online game — was short-circuited by a dogfighting conviction. He served 18 months in a federal jail and an extra two months in dwelling confinement for his function. He resumed his profession with Philadelphia Eagles, and later the New York Jets and the Pittsburgh Steelers, earlier than retiring in 2017.