Working undercover in 2007, Gabrielson recalled one incident when he walked inside the garage of a West Dayton house.
With music playing and an area designated for concessions, he said anyone would have thought a house party was about to start, if not for the “pit” that had been set up.
He said it was a party, until someone brought out the dogs, put them in the pit and began a fight.
Gabrielson said he spent 14 months working undercover with Operation Bite Back, a nearly two-year federal investigation that netted multiple arrests in Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and Pennsylvania in March 2007.
Ohio had 54 arrests, according to Fred Alverson, spokesman for the United States Attorney’s Southern District of Ohio office. Ten of those 54 were charged in federal court, 44 were charged in state court and 37 were charged in Montgomery County.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Dwight Keller, who prosecuted at least 10 of the federal cases filed in Dayton, was also interviewed in the television show, Alverson said.
Gabrielson said he had to live the role in the underworld of dogfighting in order to help build a case.
“I was a partner in a kennel with some bad guys,” he said. “I was a financial partner in a kennel whose sole purpose was to buy, sell and raise pit bull dogs.”
Gabrielson said he also bought drugs, guns and attended more than 30 dog fights.
But for all the illegal activities he was engaged in, Gabrielson said nothing compared to the abuse he witnessed and “the sounds from the fights ... (and) the yelping and crunching of bone.”
A description of the episode that features Gabrielson can be found on the Animal Planet web site - http://press.discovery.com/us/apl/ . It says the show will talk about the "secretive world of organized dog-fighting."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2414 or kwynn@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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