LeShon Johnson, Ex-N.F.L. Running Back, Ran Major Dogfighting Kennel, U.S. Says

The federal authorities said this week that they had broken up a major dogfighting kennel in Oklahoma led by the former National Football League running back LeShon Johnson, seizing 190 pit-bull-type dogs in what they described as the most ever taken from a single person in a federal case.

In a news release, the Justice Department said on Tuesday that a 21-count indictment against Mr. Johnson, 54, had recently been unsealed in federal court in Muskogee, Okla. He was arrested on March 20 and arraigned the same day before being released, according to court documents.

Mr. Johnson, who played for the Green Bay Packers, the Arizona Cardinals and the New York Giants in the 1990s, is facing felony charges of possessing and trafficking dogs for use in an animal fighting venture. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.

He previously pleaded guilty to state dogfighting charges in 2004 and received a five-year deferred sentence.

“The F.B.I. will not tolerate criminals that harm innocent animals for their twisted form of entertainment,” Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, said in a statement. “The F.B.I. views animal cruelty investigations as a precursor to larger, organized crime efforts, similar to trafficking and homicides.”

Courtney R. Jordan, a lawyer for Mr. Johnson, declined to comment on Wednesday.

Investigators say that Mr. Johnson “selectively bred ‘champion’ and ‘grand champion’ fighting dogs — dogs that have respectively won three or five fights” as part of his criminal enterprise, which was known as Mal Kant Kennels and was based in Broken Arrow, Okla., and Haskell, Okla.

He marketed and sold stud rights and offspring from winning fighting dogs to others involving in dog fighting, the authorities said, promoting their bloodlines.

Federal prosecutors said that they had obtained text messages, emails and money transfer app transactions that show that Mr. Johnson had profited from his dogfighting venture.

The number of dogs seized from Mr. Johnson appeared to be about three times the number discovered on the property of another former N.F.L. player whose imprisonment on dogfighting charges dominated headlines in the early 2000s: the star quarterback Michael Vick.

Mr. Johnson was a standout at Northern Illinois University, finishing sixth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1993. He was selected in the third round of the 1994 N.F.L. draft by the Packers, for whom he played less than two seasons and struggled to replicate his college success. He spent parts of three seasons with the Arizona Cardinals.

In 1998, he signed as a free agent with the Giants, but his career was disrupted when he was diagnosed that year with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He scored two touchdowns the next year after completing chemotherapy and radiation treatments, The Oklahoman newspaper in Oklahoma City reported.

His latest arrest on animal cruelty charges recalled the case of Mr. Vick, the dual-threat quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons whose success in the N.F.L. — guiding his team to the playoffs and making the cover of the Madden video game — was short-circuited by a dogfighting conviction. He served 18 months in a federal prison and an additional two months in home confinement for his role. He resumed his career with Philadelphia Eagles, and later the New York Jets and the Pittsburgh Steelers, before retiring in 2017.