PHOENIX -- Sheriff's deputies booked three men into jail on suspicion of animal cruelty and cockfighting.

Deputies responded to the scene of an alleged cockfighting ring earlier this week in Harquahala Valley.

Eriberto Cuellar, 28; Hector Rivera, 31, and Jose Martinez, 19, were found with several roosters, many of them dead, during a traffic stop near the same location, sheriff's investigators said.

The three men admitted they owned the roosters and held cockfights for profit, deputies said.

Deputies placed immigration holds on Martinez and Rivera for being in the country illegally, the sheriff's office said.

Many of the roosters were covered in blood. Investigators said some of the roosters were euthanized as a result of their degraded condition.