Both Juan Miguel Castillo, 44, and Pascual Mateo-Diego, 28, are residents of Fort Payne, DeKalb County, Alabama, United States. They were recently arrested.
In 1969, the country music band Alabama was formed in Fort Payne. The city is near Lookout Mountain, a mountain ridge at the northwest center of Georgia, USA.
Nick Welden is the DeKalb County sheriff. He is a Republican.
“Child trafficking and child sex crimes have been on the rise across the entire county in the last few years,” Welden recently stated. “It’s a crime that’s hard to spot, hard to work and hard to convict on.”
Operation Merry Christmas
On December 14, 2024, the criminal investigation unit of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office conducted an undercover operation called Operation Merry Christmas. Specific details of the operation were not revealed.
The human trafficking sting resulted in the arrest of Castillo, Mateo-Diego and six other men. Each of them was charged with traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act, which is a felony.
Castillo and Mateo-Diego were the only Fort Payne residents among the eight arrestees. The others were Austin Lee Battles, 29, of Attalla, Etowah County, Alabama, Casey Lynn McCormick, 35, of Boaz, Alabama, Jonathan Holmes Golden, 40, of Somerville, Morgan County, Alabama, Jose Gonzalez, 55, of Scottsboro, Jackson County, Alabama, Juvah Tertius Williams, 29, of Gadsden, Etowah County and Reid Edgar Simmons, 64, of Ohatchee, Calhoun County, Alabama.
During the investigation, one firearm, seven vehicles, more than $2,000 in cash and multiple weapons were seized. The eight arrestees are accused of knowingly meeting a child under 16 with the expectation of sexual contact, performance, sodomy or intercourse and some of them were armed with knives or firearms when they were arrested.
CONAN Daily 