Limestone County sheriff speaks on child sex trafficking operation that led to 9 arrests

LIMESTONE CO., Ala. (WAFF) - Kevin Brooks is one of the nine men arrested in connection to a Limestone County human trafficking scheme.

According to court records obtained by WAFF before this arrest, Brooks was already on the sex offenders registry in Madison County.

Limestone County Sheriff Joshua McLaughlin said he hopes that justice will play out and these people will never hurt another child again.

Brooks, along with five others including Macario Mina, Robin Morneault, Stephen Carmac, Quan Zeng and Lavoris Mitchell face charges of Human Trafficking, Electronic Solicitation of a Child, and Traveling to Meet a Minor for an Unlawful Sex Act.

Darris Moore II, Donald Devaney and Raul Alvarez-Lopez face two counts of Human Trafficking, two counts of Electronic Solicitation of a Child, and two counts of Traveling to Meet a Minor for an Unlawful Sex Act.

Those arrests come just after a disturbance call led deputies to the rescue of a missing child from another state who had fallen victim to sex trafficking.

The sheriff praised Deputy Dylan Legg for his work and attention to detail in helping that child.

“I would say I am very thankful for him, I am very proud of him,” said McLaughlin. ”The fact that he didn’t just move on to the next call, he saw there was something there, he followed through and we were able to rescue a young lady. I’m just super thankful to have him as part of our team.”

McLaughlin said they put a lot of manpower and training into operations like this.

“We have training every single year, a lot of it goes to these things,” said McLaughlin. “These specific ops we start off with a week-long training, a very intensive week-long, it’s not just sit around and do nothing.”

He adds that even though this takes a lot of manpower and financial obligations for these operations, there is no price tag on a child’s safety.

“It’s very expensive. But, you know I tell people all the time you can’t put a price on the safety of our children or our community and I think any good leader would agree with that,” said McLaughlin.

Officials said they ensured a safe return of the rescued child with their family.

Between the nine arrested they face a total of 36 charges.

This investigation is still ongoing.

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