At least seven people have been arrested on charges related to what authorities have described as a huge Alabama child sex trafficking ring.
A report from WJTV explained the Bibb County Sheriff Jody Wade said, “I’ve been in law enforcement for 33 years, and this is absolutely the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen when it comes to the victimization of children.
“I know God’s forgiveness is boundless. But if there was a limit to it, I think we reached it.”
The suspects could have made up to $1,000 a night victimizing children, the report said, citing law enforcement documentation there were at least 10 victims from 3 years old to 15.
Arrested were William Chase McElroy, Dalton Terrell, Andres Trejo-Velazquez, Timothy St. John, Rebecca Brewer, Ricky Terrell and Sara Terrell, and pending charges allege rape, sodomy, sexual abuse, sexual torture, human trafficking and kidnapping, the report noted.
“No child deserves this. That’s the most horrible thing you can do. The power and control of it, the stealing the innocence of a child and the horrible victimizations they went through with these monsters,” Wade said.
The report said Wade believes the violence to have ties to the Sureños gang, which he said is mostly funded through child sex trafficking.
Wade explained in the report the investigation began in February when the Alabama Department of Human Resources got allegations of child abuse. Sheriff’s officers eventually have the children in a bunker behind a home.
Wade described the confinement of the children. “It depends on what appointment time the offenders had. Sometimes, the children would be there, tied to a pole that was there, bound to a bed that was there, or a chair that was there. Sometimes, there would be multiple people that would come by and victimize these children on a nightly basis.”
The sheriff said his hope was that the abuse would end up a “blurry memory” for the youngest victims, but he said for the older children, “They’ll carry this vividly for the rest of their lives. … You can’t heal from this, but you can move on as best as you can.”