ALBERTVILLE — Albertville Police Chief JT Cartee has a dire warning to parents about child exploitation: “These kinds of people are in our community, they’re everywhere.”
Cartee’s statement comes after he announced five men were arrested in connection to child exploitation in his city.
The undercover operations took place with the assistance of the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office, the Marshall County District Attorney’s Office, Covenant Rescue Group and Homeland Security Investigations, he said. Covenant Rescue Group is a Gardendale-based agency that focuses on bringing an end to human trafficking.
The arrests were just two weeks after the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office arrested nine men from across North Alabama after an undercover child exploitation sex trafficking operation. The sheriff’s office was joined by the Athens Police Department and Covenant Rescue Group in the operation.
According to authorities, the offenders targeted and solicited decoys, who they believed were children, in chat rooms, social media and other sites.
Police said the men were allegedly in communication with what was believed to be children through texting and phone calls to engage in unlawful sex acts.
“These kinds of people are in our community, they’re everywhere,” Cartee said. “And we don’t have to have a tip or anything. We know they’re out there.
“Basically, you just set up an operation and they come.”
While technology has made child sex crimes easier, Covenant Rescue CEO Jared Hudson said it has also made the crimes also easier to detect.
“We have the ability to more easily be connected so that might make it easer, but I don’t think it’s more rampant, I just think it’s more easily accessed,” said Hudson.
Marshall County Sheriff Phil Sims said the operation took several months of planning, which was necessary.
“This helps us get the perpetrators off the street without having an actual victim,” he said.
And, to Simms, it’s more than a job.
“It gets personal,” he said. “It does for me because I have children myself.”
Those arrested in Albertville, all on $1 million bond, were:
- Roger Brian Ayers (54) of Guntersville – two counts of traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act; two counts of electronic solicitation of a child.
- Ricardo Isaias Carrillo Becerra (36) of Fort Payne – one count of traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act; one count of electronic solicitation of a child.
- Juan Eduardo Paredes Rios (26) of Attalla – two counts of traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act; two counts of electronic solicitation of a child
- Mario Antonio Rocha Placensia (40) of Fyffe – one count of traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act; one count of electronic solicitation of a child
- Gerardo Orellana (44) of Buford, Ga. – one count of traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act; one count of electronic solicitation of a child.
Hudson has some words of warning to would-be traffickers.
“… to those who wish to exploit children in the Tennessee Valley, consider this: the next time you try and chat up a child online, you just might be talking to one of our highly trained officers who will hunt you down and arrest you,” he said.
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