Miguel Delgado, 74, a Puerto Rican native who currently resides in Providence is one of six men facing federal charges from two cockfighting cases in 2022. Delgado stated that cultural differences are to blame for the cockfighting charges. He says that he didn’t know that cockfighting was illegal.
Now, Delgado states that he is a changed man who loves the birds he keeps.
In an interview with NBC, Delgado said, “What I did was wrong. In my country, they’ve got coliseums and we go and do it. I’ve been here 50 years and when this happened I just started to do it.”
Delgado, along with five other men, were indicted by a federal grand jury in connection to an alleged cockfighting operation in Providence. Together with Geridemez Kingsley Jamie, Jose Rivera, and Luis Castillo, Delgado was arraigned in mid-September. They all pleaded not guilty and were released on bond.
Delgado invited NBC News to his home, showing them their birds and speaking up to let the media hear his side of the story. He said, “I didn’t know that was illegal and was going to give me all of this trouble.”
He further added, “People get the first impression that, you know, this guy is a criminal, he’s a racketeer. I was all of that in my past, you know. That’s why you’re talking to me here because I got nothing to hide.”
NBc asked Delgado if he felt overwhelmed with more than a dozen birds he has on his property, to which Delgado replied, “Right now, I am. I don’t eat it. How can you? It’s like eating a kid.”
Delgado pleaded not guilty in court to multiple charges related to cockfights but admitted his guilt to NBC. “Why I’m going to plead guilty when I got a lawyer to advise me not guilty? He’s the one that plead for me, not me,” said Delgado.
In addition to being released on an unsecured $10,000 bond, Delgado cannot communicate with the other co-defendants, and he cannot leave Rhode Island as his pretrial is being set.
