according to the FBI<\/a>. Over the last decade, the U.S. government began using civil forfeiture laws to take ownership of dogs with the goal of getting them adopted instead.<\/p>\nIn South Florida, the seizure of dogs remains a rare occurrence compared to cash, firearms, boats, jewelry and other assets typically seized by the government during criminal investigations. A search of South Florida federal forfeiture cases under the same statute applied to Benefield\u2019s case over the last five years primarily returns seizures of money and firearms. None mention dogs or other animals.<\/p>\n
Benefield\u2019s situation is also unique in that he could have conceivably fought to keep his dogs, unlike someone convicted of smuggling firearms or trafficking drugs.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody in Benefield\u2019s situation could say \u2018Hey, I want my dogs back, they\u2019re my dogs, why are you taking them,’\u201d his attorney, Richard Della Fera, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Friday. \u201cYou can\u2019t say to the government, \u2018Hey, I want my cocaine back.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Benefield has worked for the Broward School District since 2016, most recently as an automotive instructor at Boyd H. Anderson High School, a position he was able to keep despite his arrest. Over that same time period, he rose to the top of Broward\u2019s dogfighting underworld, where he was known as \u201cone of the top dog fighting trainers and dog fighters in South Florida,\u201d prosecutors said in the complaint.<\/p>\n
In 2023, an FBI source and former dog fighter began secretly recording conversations with Benefield. In one recorded conversation, Benefield showed the confidential FBI source a video of one of his dogs killing and eating another dog in his backyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the fifth one he killed,\u201d Benefield told the source. \u201cHe done killed five.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benefield\u2019s sentencing is set for Tuesday. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on each count, but is asking the judge to spare him prison time and issue a lighter sentence of supervision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am deeply ashamed that I participated in something that caused suffering to an innocent animal and I would never hurt an animal intentionally,\u201d he wrote in a letter filed Thursday. \u201cLooking back I recognize that my actions reflected poor judgement and lack of respect for the law, for the wellbeing of animals and for the standards of the community. I regret these decisions every day after working so hard to get out the streets and steer my kids the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"One](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-01-16-133631-e1737131429405.jpg\")
One of the dogs found during the raid on Alex Benefield’s Deerfield Beach home. (FBI\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n
The same day FBI agents arrested Benefield in January, they also arrested a second prominent dogfighter, Tramaine Marvin Randall of Pompano Beach. Randall pleaded guilty to one count of possession or training of a dog for use in an animal fighting venture and was sentenced in July to one year of probation.<\/p>\n
Agents had also raided Randall\u2019s home and seized 11 dogs, which he also agreed to forfeit to the U.S. government, according to his plea agreement.<\/p>\n
As part of his sentence, Randall was ordered to complete 100 community service hours at an animal rescue facility, according to court records. His attorney is currently seeking to modify this requirement, however, saying he attempted to volunteer at animal rescue facilities in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, but all of them turned him away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. government is seeking ownership of over 40 pit bulls following its take-down of a Broward dogfighting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,112,16484,28,249,251,250,114,266,115,109],"class_list":["post-72785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-deerfield-beach","tag-florida","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TFL-L-Alex-E-Benefield.jpg\")
Alex Eugene Benefield, 54, of Deerfield Beach, pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing, training and receipt of a dog for use in an animal fighting venture as part of an agreement with prosecutors. (Broward Sheriff’s Office\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n