Desert camp finds 11 children in squalor

NEW YORK • Police raided a remote desert encampment in New Mexico and found 11 children living among potential Muslim extremists, in “filthy” conditions.

Three women — the mothers of the children, aged between one and 15 — and two men were charged with child abuse.

One of the men, Siraj Wahhaj, 39, was wanted in his home state of Georgia for questioning over the disappearance of his three-yearold son, Abdul. Both were last seen in December, when Wahhaj told his wife, Hakima Ramzi, that he was taking the boy to the park.

The boy’s mother told police her child suffered from seizures along with development and cognitive delays. Wahhaj’s relatives, including his father, an imam at a mosque in Brooklyn, New York, launched a social media campaign to try to find the missing boy.

The toddler was not found in the raid. Police went in after the sheriff in Taos, N.M., was forwarded a note from someone on the property given to Georgia police, which read: we are starving and need food and water.

Jerry Hogrefe, sheriff of Taos County, said: “I knew we couldn’t wait on another agency to step up. We had to check this out as soon as possible.”

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.” He and his men were met by Wahhaj and his colleague, Lucas Morten, who were armed

I’VE BEEN A COP FOR 30 YEARS. I’VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS.

with an AR-15 rifle, five loaded 30-round magazines and four loaded pistols, including one in Wahhaj’s pocket.

The women — Jany Leveille, believed to be Morten’s wife, Hujrah Wahhaj, and Subhannah Wahhaj, an author of Muslim self-help books — eventually gave themselves up.

When officials finally entered the makeshift compound, they found what one officer called “the saddest living conditions and poverty I have seen.”

Hogrefe told ABC News the children were hungry, thirsty and filthy: “I’ve been a cop for 30 years. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Police described the compound as a small underground trailer covered by plastic, with no running water or electricity.

All five adults were detained, charged with child abuse. The children were taken away for medical tests.

Morten was also charged with harbouring a fugitive, and-Wahhaj was held over the Georgia arrest warrant for child abduction.