Seven people were charged as a so -called sexual traffic operation which, according to Alabama officials, was short of a concrete bunker and involved children as young as 3 years.
The case includes accusations of rape, sexual torture, kidnapping and trafficking in human beings, and civil servants allege that abuses took place in a building of Cinder Block in Brent, in Alabama, 80 kilometers southwest of Birmingham, the sheriff of Bibb county, Jody Wade, during a press conference on Wednesday.
He called alleged abuse and torture “the most horrible thing I have ever seen” perpetrated against children.
“I know that the forgiveness of God is limitless,” said Wade. “But if there was a limit, I think we reached it.”
He said that the operators of the sexual abuse ring instructed people to come to the bunker and mistreat the children, adding that the operation may have made $ 1,000 per night.
“Sometimes the children were there, attached to a pole that was there, linked to a bed that was there, or in a chair that was there,” said Wade. “Sometimes there were several people who came and victim these children every night.”
An image of the interior of the bunker, released by the sheriff’s office, showed a dirty mattress in a corner, a folding chair and a fan.
The sheriff also alleged that children were sometimes drugged “to make them a little more sleepy and a little more compliant”.
An animal shock collar has been used to punish children, according to complaints obtained by the NBC News subsidiary WVTM of Birmingham.
Wade said the suspects include parents of some of the 10 alleged victims, who have an old age from 3 to 15 years old.
Children are in the custody of the state, said Robert H. Turner, Jr., the district prosecutor of the 4th legal circuit of Alabama.
The sheriff said that the operation seems to have gathered around 2022 and that officials began investigating in February after state protection officials alerted the BibB county authorities to the possibility of abuse in a house near the bunker. Children did not live in the bunker, said sheriff.
Wade said that an investigation into drug trafficking on the spot may have delayed sex trafficking.
“We had a little restraint until we can save these children,” said sheriff.
At least two of the arrests were made in April, said the sheriff’s office. A number of defendants admitted the crimes described in the accusations, Wade said.
The seven faces a mixture of accusations, including rape, sexual abuse and sexual torture of a child, trafficking in human beings, sodomy, kidnapping, bestiality and abuse of animals, according to criminal complaints.
It is not clear if all the defendants have obtained a legal advisor.
“We are studying with diligence all the tracks and collects evidence to build the strongest case as possible,” said Turner.
Turner said that arrests and additional charges are likely.
“We plan that new names that have surfaced during the investigation will also be presented for examination,” he said by email on Friday.
Wade also said there may be more victims.
Homeland Security Investigations strives to determine if there are possible links with a national sex trafficking ring managed by gangs, Wade said. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Friday.
If you are a mistreated child or you know a child who can be confronted with mistreatment, call the national child abuse of children to childhood at (800) 422-4453, or go to www.childhelphotline.org. States often have warm lines of children’s mistreatment, but if you suspect that the life of a child is imminent, call 911.
