Scores of children were rescued from a group home in Mexico's northern state of Michoacán on Tuesday where employees allegedly beat and raped residents of the home on a regular basis.

According to reports, the 458 children were forced to beg for money and suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their captors. 138 adults were also rescued from the Great Family group home.

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All residents lived in deplorable and filthy conditions where rats, ticks, and fleas were common and they were forced to eat rotten food fed to them by those running the home.

Authorities stated that ten of the victims were so malnourished from the abuse that they were unable to even determine their age.

After federal and state police raided the shelter, garbage trucks hauled away as much as 20 tons of trash from the insect-infested home.

Mainly poor parents and relatives flocked to the area in hopes of being reunited with family members who had been staying in the home.

A total of 607 adults and children had been held at the shelter against their will.

An investigation into the questionable status of the Great Family home began around a year ago after five parents filed complaints against the home stating that employees would not allow them to visit their children.

One woman, whose 17-year-old grandson was staying at the home due to behavioral problems, reported that when she asked for her grandson to be released from the home and into her care, shelter founder Rosa del Carmen Verduzco demanded 70,000 pesos ($5,400) for his release.

Employees reportedly ran another woman off the property when she attempted to take her 20-year-old son out of the home.

Currently, shelter residents are remaining at the Great Family home as police try to find where to transfer them. Officials have reported that all residents are receiving proper nourishment and being checked by doctors.

Tagsmexico group home sex scandal, mexico house of horror, group home rescue