New Mexico: 11 'Starving' Children Rescued From Makeshift Compound

Source: The Guardian

Two armed men were arrested after the children were found with no food or fresh water and ‘dirty rags’ for clothing.

Police in rural New Mexico have rescued 11 children from a “squalid” makeshift compound after receiving a tip that they were “starving” and desperately in need of food and water.

The children, ranging in age from one to 15, were turned over to state child-welfare workers. “They were skinny, their ribs showed, they were in very poor hygiene and very scared,” Taos county Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe told ABC News Radio.

Two adult men and three women were initially arrested after police raided the compound Thursday, but the women – believed to be the mothers of the children – were later released.

Hogrefe said the five adults and 11 children “looked like third world country refugees not only with no food or fresh water, but with no shoes, personal hygiene and basically dirty rags for clothing”. There was little food in the compound, which consisted of a small travel trailer buried in the ground and covered by plastic with no water, plumbing and electricity, Hogrefe said...More...


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/06/new-mexico-starving-children-rescued-compound

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Authorities said the two men, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and Lucan Morton, were heavily armed with rifles, pistols and a large cache of ammunition, and were believed to be Muslim extremists.
The discovery was brought on by a months-long search for a three-year-old child, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, who went missing in Atlanta, Georgia, in November. According to social media posts by the boy’s mother, his father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, disappeared with the child after saying he was taking him to the park.



Conditions at a compound in rural New Mexico where 11 children were taken into protective custody for their own health and safety after a raid by authorities.