Update: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Task Force spearheaded the investigation into the alleged cockfight, according to a press release. The agency stated it was looking at state and federal charges "relating to animal fighting and gambling" and "illegal aliens, narcotics and weapons."
The case is part of Operation Take Back America, which centers on repelling "the invasion of illegal immigration" and achieving "the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations."
Original:
Cuevas, a 57-year-old mother of two, was running a concession stand on May 3, 2025, during a gathering at her brother-in-law’s property in Gulfport, MS, to raise money for her sister, who was battling stage-4 liver cancer. She hoped she could earn enough to cover a critical medical trip to Chicago for specialized treatment.
But that morning quickly transformed into a nightmare when dozens of heavily armed federal SWAT agents stormed the property. “They came with a big old army tank. They busted the gate down with an army tank. You could see Gulfport PD, SWAT, Harrison County, U.S. Marshals, agriculture vans—over 150 agents,” she told Townhall.
The reason for the raid: A suspected cockfighting ring.
However, Cuevas contends that there was no cockfighting at the gathering.
The raid resembled a shock-and-awe military operation, with agents working quickly to round up anyone they considered a suspect. “All you can hear was, boom, boom,” she said. “They were shooting rubber bullets, but you don’t know that when you’re lying on the ground with a metal roof over your head…All I could see was dirt flying up.”
Even her 13-year-old nephew wasn’t spared. Cuevas recalled that he was in a nearby field when the officers arrived. “He wasn’t even near the barn. He was out in the pasture. One of the officers screamed at him, ‘Get out, motherf***er!’ like he was some criminal. He’s just a little boy,” she said.
One of Cuevas’ relatives tried to go upstairs during the chaos when an officer fired over his head. “They shot over him as he was climbing the stairs,” she said.
Cuevas herself was forced to lie face down on the ground. “They tried to throw me on my chest and I said, ‘Hold up, I had open heart surgery.’ The officer said, ‘Well then, roll over.’ They zip-tied me and everyone else, and they took our phones, put them in Ziploc bags with our names on them,” she said.
Cuevas’ sister, who was bedridden due to her cancer, was not left unscathed. “My sister’s in the bed hyperventilating — they’re standing over her, got guns drawn on her,” the mother said. “I begged them, I told them I was my sister’s caretaker, she was sick, she had cancer. I said, ‘I need to be up there with her.’ They just said, ’Get on the ground, do what I told you to do.”
Then came what Cuevas described as the most horrific moment of the raid: The brutal slaughter of the family’s chickens. She said she witnessed the officers killing every single chicken on the property while she was being held on a bus. “They were killing the chickens, beating their heads against the backboard, killing baby chicks in tubs, even Buff Orpingtons—just laying chickens, not gamefowl. They killed the kids’ show chickens for 4-H. They killed every single one of them,” the mother recounted.
Many of the individuals at the gathering were arrested and charged, even though none of the attendees actually participated in a cockfight. The authorities seized cell phones, an SD card, bottles of animal medication, and a “chicken trainer,” according to the search warrant.
The affidavit included a letter sent by Janette Reever with the Humane World for Animals addressed to Assistant US Attorney Hunter McCreight, which encouraged the authorities to kill all of the birds on the property, describing it as an “inevitable outcome for roosters seized in such cases.”
The prosecution further claimed killing the birds was necessary to prevent the spread of avian influenza. The officers did not test any of the fowl to determine whether they had any diseases before killing them.
Cuevas was charged with conspiracy to “knowingly sponsor and exhibit an animal in an animal fighting venture, and to knowingly attend an animal fighting venture, by operating a concession stand in proximity to the fighting pit,” according to court documents.
“I spent three days in Harrison County Jail for conspiracy to sell a hot dog,” she said.
The federal magistrate coerced her into taking a public defender appointed by the court. “The judge said, ‘Do you agree to go with the public defender? If your answer is no, you will be escorted back to jail until trial.’ I had no choice. My sister was waiting for me—I couldn’t sit in there.”
For Cuevas, the most tragic outcome from the raid was the toll it took on her sister. Because of the arrest, her sister was unable to make the appointment in Chicago and was later taken to a different hospital.
During a visit, Cuevas witnessed a scene that haunts her to this day when her sister experienced a fatal episode.
“The blood was dripping out of her ear. She started convulsing. I was screaming for help, trying to flip her over, but she was so heavy from all the fluid. The doctors were trying to intubate her, putting paddles on her, trying to get her to breathe,” Cuevas recalled.
She panicked and ran outside to call her brother. “I called my best friend, I called my brother, screaming, ‘Get down here to the hospital,’” Cuevas said. Unfortunately, by the time she returned inside, her sister had died. “At exactly five o’clock in the morning, they pronounced her dead.”
“We were like twins, a year apart. She was my ride or die. And I beat myself up every day, thinking if I’d just said no and taken her to Chicago, maybe she’d still be here,” she sobbed.
Now, the mother faces a prison sentence for an offense she did not commit. “I didn’t even own a chicken,” she said.
Her nephews remain jailed, her family’s property devastated, her sister buried. She has little faith in her court-appointed lawyer: “He tells me I’m guilty already. I don’t think I’m going to get a fair trial.”
The public defender informed Cuevas that if she accepts a plea deal, she could face a sentence of nine to 18 months in federal prison. However, she intends to fight the charges. She filed a motion to remove her public defender and is seeking other legal options with the assistance of the United States Human Defense League.
What haunts her most is the brutality of the raid—the firepower, the shots, the children forced to the ground, and the slaughter of birds that had nothing to do with cockfighting. “They didn’t care if my sister was dying. They didn’t care if we missed the flight. All they cared about was the chickens and putting us in jail.”
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