Former Arizona Cardinals running back LeShon Johnson will spend the next five years in federal prison after authorities said he ran a sprawling dogfighting and trafficking operation out of Oklahoma.
Johnson was sentenced Thursday to 60 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay a $30,000 fine after being convicted on six federal dogfighting charges. Federal agents also removed 190 pit bulls from his property, the biggest single-person dog seizure in federal law enforcement history.
Prosecutors said Johnson’s operation, which ran under the name “Mal Kant Kennels,” dates back as early as 2007 and was built as a profitable breeding business. According to evidence presented at trial, he promoted dogs online as “champions” and “grand champions” - labels tied to surviving three to five illegal fights - then sold puppies from winning bloodlines and collected stud fees. Federal prosecutors said the scheme brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The case is the second major animal cruelty conviction for Johnson, who played three seasons for the Cardinals in the mid-1990s and was a standout at Northern Illinois University in 1993. That season, he earned unanimous All-American honors and finished sixth in Heisman Trophy voting. Johnson had already pleaded guilty to state dogfighting charges in Oklahoma in 2004 under the business name “Krazyside Kennels.”
“LeShon Johnson will face justice for building another particularly egregious and violent dogfighting scheme,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. “As Johnson was well aware, dogfighting is a felony in all 50 states.”
Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Tapp of the FBI New Orleans Field Office said, “The animals in this case were defenseless, and the defendant used them to harm each other for his entertainment.”
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