DECATUR (1080 KRLD) - A fast-thinking deputy sheriff in Wise County helps rescue a 13-year-old boy who was being trafficked.
Early Friday morning, the deputy pulled over a vehicle on southbound 287 north of Decatur for traveling in the left lane without passing anyone.
"The 38-year-old man told the deputy that he had been in California to see his mother who was seriously ill," says Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin. "But he said he was only in California for three hours, and the deputy thought that was a little bit strange."
The deputy then questioned the driver about the 13-year-old boy who was sitting in the passenger seat.
The driver told the deputy that the boy was his son.
"He told him the kid's name," says Sheriff Akin. "Then the deputy came back and asked, 'What's his last name?' But the driver could not recall."
The deputy then talked with the 13-year-old.
"The 13 year old told the deputy that he was traveling with his father," Akin says. "So he's saying the driver — the 38-year-old — was his father. And so now the deputy is really concerned about the level of deception on both sides."
The deputy's concerns ended up being spot-on.
"The driver had been paid by someone to drive to California, pick up this 13-year-old, and return him to Georgia," says Akin.
The driver is identified as Benito Granado of Charlotte, N.C., and Akin says he's a U.S. citizen.
"The driver now is being held in the Wise County Jail on $100,000 bond," Akin says.
The Department of Homeland Security has taken over leading the investigation, and the Wise County Sheriff's Office is assisting.
Akin says it's unknown what the folks in Georgia had in store for the boy, whether he was being trafficked for sex or forced labor.
"The 13 year old was actually from Guatemala," Akin says, "and he crossed the border just weeks earlier."
