Investigators said Friday that they’d busted a criminal ring that was running a cockfighting, methamphetamine and marijuana operation at a home near Kapowsin in southeastern Pierce County.

Sheriff’s detectives found an active meth lab and hundreds of marijuana plants on a 4-acre property tucked off Meridian Avenue East, spokesman Ed Troyer said. They also seized stolen property, found two assault rifles and confiscated at least 51 fighting roosters, Troyer said.

Investigators arrested a 38-year-old man after the morning raid in the 32400 block of Meridian Avenue East. He was booked into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of drug charges, possession of stolen property, animal fighting and professional gambling.

Sheriff Paul Pastor said the operation was an example of how animal abuse and other crimes are linked.

“We found weapons, drugs, stolen cars and cockfighting all in one place,” he said. “We will continue to move against locations like these whenever we find them.”

Detectives were looking for at least one other person and say more arrests could be made.

“We believe they were manufacturing and selling marijuana and meth and fighting animals,” Troyer said. “Right now, we know who the organizers are. There could be other people that we may go after that were out there gambling, too.”

Officers from the Sheriff’s Department, Seattle police, the state Gambling Commission and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department spent several hours on the property, documenting evidence, dismantling the drug-making operations and rounding up and removing the roosters. Animal control officers from Tacoma and Lakewood also helped out.

The raid began as a search for illegal weapons, Troyer said.

“It snowballed into this,” he said.

Sheriff’s SWAT and meth lab teams serving a search warrant at the property found roosters and chickens, some in cages and others tied to posts. Investigators also found a fire pit and the ring where they believe the cockfights took place.

Illegal cockfighting might have been taking place at the property for some time, according to court documents.

A woman granted a domestic-violence protection order against the man arrested Friday wrote in a sworn affidavit filed in December that he “was planning cockfights in the house” at that time.

The bust was not related to another cockfighting ring broken up in the Seattle area this week, Troyer said.

Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268

stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com

blog.thenewstribune.com/crime

Staff writer Adam Lynn contributed to this report.