Florida man arrested after drug bust uncovers dog-fighting operation, 9-foot alligator
Florida man arrested after drug bust uncovers dog-fighting operation, 9-foot alligator. The KRAK 11 News hour: The World Desk, Criminal Intent, Animals, A Quick Look At Sports. Real stories from named sources, read by Chip Marlowe and Deb Sarkissian.
Aired 2026-08-20 04:49 UTC · 5 segments · 8 min · complete transcript below
Rundown
KRAK 11 NEWS
Good evening. This is KRAK 11 News at the top of the hour. I'm Chip Marlowe.
And I'm Deb Sarkissian. Coming up this hour on KRAK 11 News: The World Desk, where Canada and the United States say they are hours away from a new trade deal.
Criminal Intent: a Florida man, a drug bust, and what investigators found in the backyard. Then Animals, where coyotes and badgers have been filmed hunting together.
And A Quick Look At Sports.
Where the national debt has passed forty trillion dollars.
Still ahead on KRAK 11 News: The World Desk, where Prime Minister Carney says the deal could be done before the weekend deadline. We begin in a moment.
THE WORLD DESK
Good evening. This is THE WORLD DESK.
We have quite a lot tonight.
Charges in Liberia, whales off Greenland, and the royal family is making news again.
We'll start with the breaking news.
We begin tonight with breaking news from Liberia, where the country's former vice president has been formally charged in a drug-trafficking investigation.
Jewel Howard-Taylor faces charges of illegally facilitating, importing and selling drugs, alongside money laundering. She served as vice president from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty-two.
She's the former wife of Charles Taylor, the warlord president who was convicted of war crimes in The Hague.
He was sentenced to fifty years in prison. She was not implicated in those crimes. These charges are separate and relate to her time in office as vice president.
The whales off Greenland are continuing to make news.
Scientists say the waters just off Labrador are now seeing giant whales undertaking what they are calling feeding frenzies, and the reason is the ice is almost entirely gone.
Greenland sits about two hundred miles east of Labrador, across the Davis Strait.
East.
The melting sea ice from climate change has opened the region to humpbacks and fin whales in numbers researchers say they have not seen before.
How large are these feeding groups?
The study does not specify group size, but describes the behavior as concentrated feeding in areas that were ice-covered year-round as recently as the early two thousands.
A search in Australia has ended with very sad news. The body of a missing teenager has been found in the bush after an eight-day search.
Lily Hooper was reported missing on August twelfth after failing to return from a hike in a Sydney national park. Authorities have not yet released details on cause of death.
Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex have confirmed they are moving back to the United Kingdom later this month, with their children enrolled to start school in September.
Prince Archie is seven. Princess Lilibet is five. The family has lived in California since twenty twenty.
Do we know where in the UK?
The announcement did not specify a location. The children's school has not been named.
That's a significant change for the family.
It is. The Duke stepped back from royal duties in twenty twenty. This is the first confirmation of a permanent return.
And a reminder that Canada and the United States say they are finalizing a trade deal ahead of the weekend tariff deadline. Prime Minister Carney described the talks as making significant progress.
Negotiators from both sides say they are working to hammer out final details before the new weekend deadline.
If they miss the deadline, new tariffs take effect automatically.
That is correct. Both governments have said they are optimistic a deal can be reached before then.
Still ahead on KRAK 11 News, CRIMINAL INTENT. Prosecutors say formal charges are expected later this month in the Amy Lopez case after additional witnesses came forward.
The new information matches forensic evidence gathered at the time. We'll have the latest in a few minutes.
Stay with us.
CRIMINAL INTENT
Time now for the KRAK 11 Blotter.
We have reached week five of the Florida Man Tribute. I have now read more Jacksonville wire copy than anyone in Wexler County history.
That is not a credential.
It feels like one. And tonight's tribute requires a list. Back in June of last year, authorities in Jacksonville conducted what they thought was a routine drug investigation on the northwest side of the city.
They found the drugs. They also found a dog-fighting ring, evidence of animal neglect, and a nine-foot alligator being kept in what officials described as inhumane conditions.
A Florida man was arrested. That brings our total to five tributes in five weeks.
Also back in January of this year, a former Bartow police officer was arrested for allegedly poisoning his girlfriend's Maltese poodle. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office says he did not like the dog.
Prosecutors allege he poisoned the animal. He has been charged.
Back in October of last year, a Florida golf course was hit with one hundred thousand dollars in damages after someone allegedly took a golf cart on what police described as a donut joyride across the fairways and greens.
One hundred thousand dollars. Police say the cart tore up greens, fairways, and irrigation lines. The damage estimate came from the course superintendent.
And also back in October of last year, Brevard County deputies say a man stole a car from a Sunoco gas station, drove away, then turned around and brought it back a few minutes later.
Why did he bring it back?
He realized there was a child in the back seat.
Deputies say the suspect pulled into a parking lot, got out, left the car running with the child inside, and walked away. The car was returned to the mother. The suspect was arrested.
Even alleged car thieves have standards.
I have now covered five consecutive weeks of Florida crime stories. I feel like I am beginning to understand the terrain.
You are not understanding the terrain. You are reading wire copy from Jacksonville.
I could teach a seminar at this point.
You could not.
Still ahead tonight on KRAK 11 News, we have animals doing things they probably should not be doing. One of them involves a kayak, and we will tell you which animal and what happened to the kayak in just a few minutes.
Stay with us.
ANIMALS
Coming up next, the Good News Desk.
I have been refreshing the countdown page since we went to break.
I know you have.
Number five moved up six spots in eleven hours. That is unusual.
What is number five?
Coyotes and badgers hunting together in the wild. The video has gained three hundred thirty-two thousand new views in the last eleven hours.
Eight hundred eighty-three thousand total views. Posted by Zack D. Films on August nineteenth.
They work as a team. The badger digs, the coyote runs down whatever comes out the other side. They split the territory and both eat better.
That is a very practical arrangement.
It is beautiful.
Cooperation across species like that.
An endangered sea turtle made a five-thousand-mile journey back to the Texas coast after washing up in Wales last year.
Rescuers in the UK nursed the turtle back to health for nine months, then flew it to Houston where it was released this morning.
The entire flight was donated. The turtle is fitted with a tracking tag and marine biologists will monitor the route home.
Five thousand miles. That is Houston to London and back again.
In Scotland, researchers have recorded what they believe is the first confirmed sighting of a Scottish wildcat swimming.
The wildcat crossed a river in the Highlands. The species is critically endangered with fewer than three hundred left in the wild.
Conservationists say the sighting is proof the reintroduction program is working. The video has been shared with wildlife agencies across Europe.
Coming up in just a few minutes, A Quick Look at Sports. The Cubs walk it off, and we will tell you who made history doing it.
KRAK 11 News continues.
A QUICK LOOK AT SPORTS
A quick look at sports.
We have walk-offs, world champions, and Ohio State looking very good on paper.
You love a scoreboard.
The Cubs beat the White Sox five to four on Pete Crow-Armstrong's first career start walk-off hit. That is history made in the ninth inning on the South Side.
Magnus Carlsen defended his chess title at the twenty twenty-six Esports World Cup. The world called him undoubtedly the greatest of all time.
Honda admitted it only realised the scale of its Formula One problems in January. That is a tough thing to say out loud.
Ohio State is ranked number four in the Yahoo Sports preseason college football top twenty-five. The Buckeyes are looking to beat Michigan and win the playoff.
That is the scoreboard. Still ahead - the next KRAK 11 News, at the top of the hour. We will see you then.
Reporting behind this episode
- Canada and US say they are finalising a trade deal
- Former Liberian vice president charged in drug-trafficking probe
- Missing teen hiker found dead in Australian bush after eight-day search
- Giant whales move into Greenland waters as ice disappears
- Prince Harry and Meghan moving back to UK later this month
- Florida man arrested after drug bust uncovers dog-fighting operation, 9-foot alligator
- Former Bartow police officer accused of poisoning his girlfriend's Maltese poodle
- Florida golf course hit with $100K in damages over 'donut' joyride, police say
- Alleged car thief returns stolen car after finding child inside, deputies say
- Why Coyotes And Badgers Hunt Together
- Why Coyotes And Badgers Hunt Together
- Why Coyotes And Badgers Hunt Together
- Why Coyotes And Badgers Hunt Together
- Why Coyotes And Badgers Hunt Together