🚨NO WHITE SUPREMACISTS INVOLVED🚨
FOX10 News published August 26, 2024: 11 men, including state trooper, arrested in Montgomery sex trafficking sting.
The multi-agency sting was conducted in Montgomery County, but law enforcement reminds parents that sex trafficking can happen anywhere.
WSFA 12 News published August 26, 2024: Alabama state trooper, 10 others arrested in Montgomery sex trafficking sting operation. A total of 11 men, including one in law enforcement, were arrested as part of a multi-jurisdictional sex trafficking sting operation.
WFSA12 News, Montgomery, AL local
written by Staff
Monday August 26, 2024
MONTGOMERY, Alabama - A total of 11 men, including one in law enforcement, were arrested as part of a multi-jurisdictional sex trafficking sting operation undertaken on Thursday and Friday. Six remain in custody while the other five have since posted bail and been released.
Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham and officials from other agencies gathered Monday to discuss the results of the sting operation.
“It ain’t about us talking to the people that live here,” the sheriff said. “We’re talking to the people that want to come here and prey on our young people. This message today is saying ‘no.’ This message coming from us today, if you want to come into our county and do this, ‘no.’ This message today to you should be that you should see what’s going on around our state. We in law enforcement are sick and tired of it, and we’re putting an end to it.”
Those arrested include Dai Xing Chen, 45, Subin Choi, 34, James Clifford Grier, 44, Michael Lynn Hester, 54, James LeGregory McGhee, 47, William Robert Ogburn Jr., 44, Ryan Christian Rhodes, 26, Justin Gregory Tomberlin, 36, Joseph Carroll Vasseur III, 38, Owen Delma Walker Jr., 57, and Qu’Darrius D’arcy Ja’Quan White, 24.
An Alabama state trooper, Ryan Rhodes, was among those caught in the net of the sting operation.
“During the arrest, I was advised by our staff that he did resist, was belligerent, and they had to forcibly take him into custody,” said Assistant Chief Deputy Wesley Richerson. “We target criminals, and it does not matter to us the profession, their social status, their income. If they commit the crime, we’re going to arrest them, and we’re going to charge them to the fullest extent of the law.”
ALEA has since confirmed that Rhodes no longer works for the agency, releasing this statement following his arrest:
“Former Senior Trooper Ryan Rhodes resigned from his position with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) on Friday, Aug. 23. The resignation follows his arrest by deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office for Electronic Solicitation of a Child, Traveling to Meet a Child for an Unlawful Sex Act and Resisting Arrest. The arrest is a result of an ongoing investigation led by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. Any further inquiries regarding the arrest or investigation should be directed to the Montgomery Sheriff’s Office.”~Alabama Law Enforcement Agency
“Montgomery is a little safer today,” said Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey, who said he “personally got to witness the professionalism, the bravery, the integrity of these men and women of [Sheriff Cunningham’s] department, of the Marshals service, and of the Montgomery Police Department,” during the two days the operation was underway. He called the planning and execution of the operation “flawless.”
Richerson said officials used “decoy work,” and that “there were no children ever harmed or put in harm’s way during this operation.” The suspects are said to have targeted and solicited people they believed to be minors through online chatrooms and social media, then traveled to commit illegal sex acts with them, Richerson said.
“They were met by law enforcement and are no longer a threat to our community,” he added.
“We have grown, adult men who are going to hotels to meet children, to have sexual relations,” Bailey expressed. “That should sicken all of us.” The district attorney noted that each suspect faces a sentence of up to life in prison if convicted, and said that was his goal.
“I know that Jesus tells us in the Bible what he thinks of people that try to harm children, and while in the criminal justice system we’re not going to be putting any millstones around their neck, I’m going to make sure that these individuals are punished as severely as we can in our criminal justice system.”~Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey on arrests of 11 in sex trafficking sting operation
Bailey noted that half of the suspects, each with a $500,000 bail, have already been released from jail, and urged the Alabama Legislature to step up and address that issue. “It is too easy for people to make bail in the state of Alabama, way too easy,” the DA said, adding that defendants can just make a payment to a bonding company and walk free. “We need to get back to where a $500,000 bail means something, but unfortunately right now in the state of Alabama it does not.”
Multiple agencies came together for the operation, including the Covenant Rescue Group.
Chief Dante Gordon with the U.S. Marshals Service said the USMS and Covenant have already conducted two sex trafficking operations in Montgomery County this year, resulting in 23 total arrests. Additionally, they’re working to focus on another angle, non-compliance.
Gordon said 33 non-compliant sex offenders have been arrested this year and 10 have been presented for federal prosecution. Additionally, five missing and endangered juveniles have also been recovered who were involved in commercial sex or human trafficking operations.
“This type of effort, this type of result happens when all of us work together to make this city and this area safer,” explained Montgomery Police Department Acting Chief Jim Graboys.
As for those who managed to evade law enforcement this time, Sheriff Cunningham had this to say: “We didn’t get you this time, but we’re going to get you the next time. That’s something that I think everybody that wants to prey on our children needs to have in the back of their mind.”
For those who were arrested, DA Bailey had this to say:
“It’s going to be my goal, and I’m going to push every second of the way, along with Sheriff Cunningham and these partners behind me, to make sure that these individuals take their last breath in the Alabama Department of Corrections, because anyone that would do this to children, even have those thoughts of doing this to children, does not need to be walking as a free person.”
Law enforcement urged parents to be involved in what their children are looking at online and what apps are on their phones in order to limit the risk of them becoming future victims.
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