11 children rescued from ‘extremist’ men
LOS ANGELES — Police said 11 children aged 1 to 15 were rescued in the US state of New Mexico after officers raided a dilapidated compound occupied by armed men with “extremist” beliefs.
Two men were arrested after police found them and the children in what one officer called “the saddest living conditions and poverty I have seen”, as part of the operation connected to a monthslong search for an abducted 3-year-old, according to New Mexico’s Taos County sheriff ’s office.
The investigation kicked off late last year on the opposite side of the country in Jonesboro, Georgia, where 39-year-old Siraj Wahhaj of the state’s Clayton County was accused of kidnapping his toddler — who was ultimately not found.
On Aug 2, Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe of Taos County in New Mexico issued a search warrant describing “a makeshift compound surrounded by tires and an earthen berm” in a subdivision in the rural community of Amalia, where Wahhaj along with adult Lucas Morten were thought to be in hiding.
The FBI had provided information and surveillance on the spot but “didn’t feel there was enough probable cause to get on the property”, Hogrefe said.
“That all changed for me when a message was forwarded to us from a Georgia Detective that we reasonably believed came from someone at the compound — the message sent to a third party simply said in part “‘we are starving and need food and water’,” the sheriff said in a statement.
The sheriff described planning “a tactical approach for our own safety because we had learned the occupants were most likely heavily armed and considered extremist”.
Officers found the two men with weapons and ammunition, and described the hideout as “a small travel trailer buried in the ground covered by plastic with no water, plumbing, or electricity”.
“The only food we saw were a few potatoes and a box of rice in the filthy trailer,” Hogrefe said. “But what was most surprising, and heartbreaking was when the team located a total of five adults and 11 children that looked like ... refugees.”
“Not only with no food or fresh water, but with no shoes, personal hygiene and basically dirty rags for clothing.”