South Carolina's State Grand Jury has indicted 25 people on 129 counts tied to a narcotics trafficking organization investigators say was based in Chester and Lancaster counties, with the case built around a sweep that netted 47 dogs, more than 17 pounds of drugs and over 30 firearms. The operation, dubbed Duffle Bag Boyz, culminated in a roundup Tuesday that added even more evidence to an already sprawling case file.
The South Carolina Attorney General's Office announced the 129-count indictments, describing a yearslong push to dismantle a trafficking network spanning the two counties, according to einpresswire.com. Investigators said that before Tuesday's roundup, the operation had already seized 2.62 pounds of fentanyl, 6.88 pounds of methamphetamine, 1.21 pounds of cocaine, 4.5 ounces of crack cocaine, 2.5 pounds of marijuana and more than 10,000 pressed fentanyl pills, along with over 30 firearms. During Tuesday's roundup itself, agents recovered more than four additional pounds of suspected fentanyl along with more firearms and other evidence still awaiting lab analysis, per the same release.
47 Dogs Pulled From the Operation
Alongside the drugs and guns, investigators seized 47 dogs as part of the case, officials said. The indictments list dogfighting charges against several defendants, including Diara Talford, who faces counts tied to methamphetamine, cocaine and crack trafficking, dogfighting, psilocybin distribution and firearm possession during a violent felony, according to WBTV. Devin Mobley was indicted on dogfighting, marijuana distribution and methamphetamine possession charges, while Nicos Little faces 17 separate counts of dogfighting alone.
Other Lancaster County defendants named in dogfighting-related counts include Zion Hairston, charged with fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking along with fentanyl possession with intent and dogfighting, and Bobrentay Jackson, indicted on fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine trafficking charges plus possession with intent to distribute cocaine base and marijuana, and dogfighting. The station's report lists dozens of additional defendants across both counties facing trafficking and firearm counts tied to methamphetamine, cocaine, fentanyl and marijuana.
Sheriff Points to Guns-and-Drugs Overlap
Chester County Sheriff Max Dorsey said drug trafficking and violent gun crime are inseparable in South Carolina, framing the firearm charges woven through the indictments as central to the case rather than incidental to it. Dorsey added that the indictments demonstrate the effects of local and state law enforcement working together, pointing to a case that drew in the South Carolina State Grand Jury, the State Law Enforcement Division, the Chester and Lancaster County sheriffs' offices, Homeland Security Investigations, Lancaster police and the FBI.
Five of the 25 defendants are already inmates at the South Carolina Department of Corrections, according to the einpresswire.com account of the Attorney General's announcement — among them Taures Price, Rogelio Mata, Coreytito Wright, Dallas Mathis and Cedric Wright, each facing separate trafficking or firearm counts despite their incarcerated status. Bond hearings for defendants who had not yet had one were scheduled for Thursday, October 22, at the Richland County Courthouse, per the same release.
Part of a Broader Pattern
The scale of the dog seizure echoes a case from less than a year earlier: in November 2025, South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division charged four men after rescuing 47 dogs and seizing drugs, guns and money in an animal-fighting investigation centered between Columbia and Charlotte, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Those dogs were placed with Humane World for Animals for veterinary care, as reported by thestate.com, which also noted that SLED's dogfighting unit opened 18 cases statewide in 2024, resulting in the protection of 205 dogs and 60 arrests.
A separate Chester County case earlier this year underscored how often drug and dogfighting allegations overlap in the region. In January, SLED arrested 31-year-old Justin Elazer King on nearly a dozen charges tied to an organized dogfighting operation and narcotics distribution, stemming from a December 2025 search warrant that led agents to seize several pit bull-type dogs from his property, according to wrhi.com. Veterinary evaluations in that case found scarring consistent with dogfighting along with inadequate shelter, lack of clean water and malnutrition, the outlet reported.
No complete list of all 25 defendants or their individual charges has been made public beyond those named in the indictment summaries, and the final disposition of the 47 dogs seized in the Duffle Bag Boyz case has not been detailed. Lab analysis of the additional suspected fentanyl, firearms and other evidence collected during Tuesday's roundup remains pending.
