FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — FBI agents raided the homes of two prominent South Florida dog fighters on Tuesday, finding over 40 caged dogs, many of them wounded, according to federal complaints.

Alex Eugene Benefield, of Deerfield Beach, is now facing charges of conspiracy and running an animal fighting venture, while Tramaine Marvin Randall, of Pompano Beach, is charged with running an animal fighting venture, court records show.

To investigate the two men and the dog fighting underworld, the FBI used an anonymous source who has known them both for many years and was previously a dog fighter who worked with Randall beginning more than a decade ago, the complaints said.

The FBI source secretly recorded conversations with both Benefield and Randall as early as February 2023, according to the complaints. The source attended at least one recent dog fight at a home in Deerfield Beach with Randall that was also recorded. In one recorded conversation in 2023, Benefield showed the confidential FBI source a video of one of his dogs killing and eating another one in his backyard.

“That’s the fifth one he killed,” Benefield told the source. “He done killed five.”

Training and secret locations

The special agent who investigated Benefield and Randall, a member of the FBI Miami Transnational Organized Crime squad, said in the complaints that dog fights typically involve pitbulls or similar types and don’t end until someone removes their animal to forfeit a “match” or until one or both dogs die. The arranged location “is often a guarded secret until shortly before the fight.”

Those who train and fight dogs often have a goal for the animals to achieve “champion” or “grand champion” status, by winning three or five fights respectively, the complaints said. The network of dog fighters is expansive, spanning across the country in order to earn “substantial” income from betting on the fights and from breeding and selling the champion dogs.

Trainers use treadmills, weighted chains and pulling devices, poles to increase jaw strength, and legal and illegal drugs, including steroids, to prepare the animals for fights. They often try to give medical care themselves to the dogs, to avoid making veterinarians suspicious of the injuries, the complaints said.

Benefield was ‘top’ dog trainer, fighter

Benefield had been consistently involved in the dog fighting world since at least 2014, the criminal complaint said, and was known as “one of the top dog fighting trainers and dog fighters in South Florida.” The confidential FBI source had known Benefield since they were both teenagers.

The source met with Benefield at his home in Deerfield Beach in February 2023 where Benefield talked and bragged about training animals for other well-known dog fighters. Benefield showed the source the video of a dog killing and eating another animal in his yard at a second meeting a month later, according to the complaint, along with another video of two female dogs fighting.

At another meeting at Benefield’s home in December 2024, Benefield said he had just participated in a fight in Broward County days earlier and withdrew the dog because it was getting too badly injured. He showed the source the injured dog and said, “she too weak to do anything.”

The source could hear many dogs barking and crying in Benefield’s backyard, according to the complaint. At one of the meetings, Benefield described losing a dog fight to Randall.

Randall was source’s former dog fighting partner

Randall and the source had been dog fighting partners from 2014 to 2017, according to the complaint. Last July, the FBI told the source to go to a dog fight in Deerfield Beach, which the source recorded. The recording showed men including Randall gathered around the dog fight, blood on the carpet.

In October, Randall sent the source videos from another fight, men could be heard cheering things like “I didn’t come to fight, I came to kill” and “It’s going to be a bloodbath,” according to the complaint.

On Tuesday, FBI agents raided both Benefield and Randall’s homes. At Benefield’s home, they found at least 34 dogs in cages in the back yard, according to the complaint, many with scarring and injuries. At Randall’s, agents found 11 dogs, also with scarring and injuries. One of the dogs was actively bleeding. In the men’s homes, agents also found slat mills and treadmills, weighted vests and medications used to treat injuries.

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