‘Operation Merry Christmas’ bags suspected human traffickers in DeKalb County

FORT PAYNE — Labeling the suspects as “evil monsters,” DeKalb County Sheriff Nick Welden announced Tuesday the arrest of eight North Alabama men on charges of Traveling to Meet a Child for an Unlawful Sex Act, a Class A felony.

Welden said the Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Unit conducted “Operation Merry Christmas,” an undercover operation last Saturday which resulted in the arrest of the men.

In order to protect the integrity of the investigation, specific details will not be made available at this time, the office said in a news release.

“This should really open peoples’ eyes to what is lurking right here in our very own county,” Welden said. “(Evil monsters) Child trafficking and child sex crimes have been on the rise across the entire county in the last few years. It’s a crime that’s hard to spot, hard to work and hard to convict on.”

According to the news release:

1. Each subject charged was fully aware beforehand that they were meeting a child under the age of 16 with the expectation of sexual contact, performance, sodomy or intercourse.
2. Some of the subjects came armed with knives or firearms.3
3. The operation was conducted in a manner that contained and isolated any threat to the public.
4. Seven vehicles, over $2000 in cash, one firearm, and multiple other weapons were seized by Investigators during the course of the operation.

Arrested were (left to right, top row first):

• Austin Lee Battles – 29, of Attalla
• Casey Lynn McCormick- 35, of Boaz
• Jonathan Holmes Golden – 40, of Somerville
• Jose Gonzalez – 55, of Scottsboro
• Juan Miguel Castillo – 44, of Fort Payne
• Juvah Tertius Williams – 29, of Gadsden
• Pascual Mateo-Diego – 28, of Fort Payne
• Reid Edgar Simmons – 64, of Ohatchee

According to data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 1 in 6 missing children are victims of child sex trafficking. This adds up to thousands of children per year across the United States.

“The best way to fight it and keep it away from our children and our community is to start hunting it down,” Welden said. “This is exactly what our Investigation Unit did, and I am proud of their willingness to put in all their energy to better protect all our families and our future.”