More than a dozen dead chickens found during cockfighting investigation

ROCKWELL, N.C. — Four men were arrested after Rowan County sheriff's deputies said they found a cockfighting operation.

The suspects were taken to the Rowan County Detention Center, where they were being held on a $1,500 secure bail.

Victor Manuel Garcia, 37, Manuel Villa Ocampo, 36, Marcial Clemente Rodriguez, 35, and Rogelio Leonardo Calderas, 44, were charged with felony counts of cockfighting.

“The only thing I had noticed was the constant crowing that was going on, and I had wondered, why do these things crow all day long?" said a neighbor, who didn’t want to be identified.

(Manuel Villa Ocampo, Victor Manuel Garcia)

When deputies arrived at about 2:30 p.m. Saturday, they found vehicles parked in the yard and 15 to 20 men running into the woods on the 600 block of Geneva Drive in Rockwell, officials said.

“The police showed up and a lot of people scattered through the woods,” a neighbor said.

Behind the residence, deputies found chickens tied to the back of vehicles, a fenced-off area that was covered with a tarp for a roof, blood and feathers on the ground, and several dead chickens.

(Rogelio Leonardo Calderas, Marcial Clemente Rodriguez)

Authorities also located razor spurs, scales, event track sheets, record books, electronic time clock, ID straps, rolls of sticky twine and scissors, among other items.

Rowan County Animal Control arrived and collected in excess of 30 live chickens that had been either tied up or caged near the fighting ring, along with in excess of 15 dead chickens that were found close to the fighting ring.

“I'm just sorry to hear that they were doing the animals that way,” a neighbor said.

Channel 9 has covered a number of similar incidents in the area over the years.

A man was killed in February after an argument stemming from a chicken fight in Stanly County.

Three years ago, deputies seized more than 200 roosters, groomed, trained and ready to fight in Chester County.

Cox Media Group