{"id":57628,"date":"2025-08-04T20:14:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T00:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/?p=57628"},"modified":"2025-08-04T20:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T00:14:07","slug":"former-nfl-player-convicted-of-trafficking-dogs-for-fighting-ventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/former-nfl-player-convicted-of-trafficking-dogs-for-fighting-ventures\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NFL player convicted of trafficking dogs for fighting ventures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A former NFL player from Oklahoma has been convicted in what authorities say is the largest federal dog fighting case ever prosecuted, involving the seizure of 190 dogs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leshon Eugene Johnson, 54, of Broken Arrow, was found guilty last week on six felony counts of violating the Animal Welfare Act, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/former-nfl-player-convicted-operating-large-scale-dog-fighting-and-trafficking-venture\">according<\/a> to the U.S. Department of Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Johnson, who briefly played as a running back for the Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals in the 1990s, operated an illegal dog fighting business under the name \u201cMal Kant Kennels.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prosecutors said he bred and sold \u201cchampion\u201d and \u201cgrand champion\u201d fighting dogs and trafficked them across state lines for fighting ventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 190 dogs were seized from Johnson\u2019s property and are currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service as the government pursues formal forfeiture. Officials said it marks the largest number of dogs ever recovered from a single individual in a federal case of this kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Johnson has a prior dog fighting conviction from 2004 and now faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each of the six federal counts. Sentencing will be scheduled at a unannounced date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis criminal profited off of the misery of innocent animals and he will face severe consequences for his vile crimes,\u201d said Attorney General Pamela Bondi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former NFL player from Oklahoma has been convicted in what authorities say is the largest federal dog fighting case ever prosecuted, involving the seizure of 190 dogs. Leshon Eugene Johnson, 54, of Broken Arrow, was found guilty last week on six felony counts of violating the Animal Welfare Act, according to the U.S. Department [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":57629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2305,2538,85,151],"class_list":["post-57628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal","tag-animal-abuse","tag-national-football-league-nfl","tag-oklahoma","tag-united-states"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Former NFL player convicted of trafficking dogs for fighting ventures - BNO News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/former-nfl-player-convicted-of-trafficking-dogs-for-fighting-ventures\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former NFL player convicted of trafficking dogs for fighting ventures - BNO News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A former NFL player from Oklahoma has been convicted in what authorities say is the largest federal dog fighting case ever prosecuted, involving the seizure of 190 dogs. Leshon Eugene Johnson, 54, of Broken Arrow, was found guilty last week on six felony counts of violating the Animal Welfare Act, according to the U.S. Department [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/former-nfl-player-convicted-of-trafficking-dogs-for-fighting-ventures\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BNO News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bnonews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-05T00:14:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-05T00:14:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FormerNFLPlayer.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos Robles\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bnonews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bnonews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos Robles\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/former-nfl-player-convicted-of-trafficking-dogs-for-fighting-ventures\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/former-nfl-player-convicted-of-trafficking-dogs-for-fighting-ventures\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carlos Robles\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0a2ca734b9c5688c0e2d40fe6f33add1\"},\"headline\":\"Former NFL player convicted of trafficking dogs for fighting ventures\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-05T00:14:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-05T00:14:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/former-nfl-player-convicted-of-trafficking-dogs-for-fighting-ventures\/\"},\"wordCount\":226,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/former-nfl-player-convicted-of-trafficking-dogs-for-fighting-ventures\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FormerNFLPlayer.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"animal abuse\",\"National Football League (NFL)\",\"Oklahoma\",\"United States\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Legal\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/former-nfl-player-convicted-of-trafficking-dogs-for-fighting-ventures\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/former-nfl-player-convicted-of-trafficking-dogs-for-fighting-ventures\/\",\"name\":\"Former NFL player convicted of trafficking dogs for fighting ventures - 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