Child sex slavery is one of the worst crimes being perpetrated in our world today. Often going unseen and hidden both in the real world and online, evil traffickers seek to make profit from the use of children. Children usually end up destroyed by these experiences.
It is up to law enforcement agencies across the world to fight this evil scourge. One man who was tasked with that mission through his work with US Homeland Security was Tim Ballard. As part of Homeland Security in the mid-2000s, he was sent on missions to Mexico and Colombia to fight sex traffickers who were enslaving children and selling them to customers, many of whom were tourists from Europe and the United States.
Tim's role was to go undercover and infiltrate these gangs. He said:
"I learned how to act like a pedophile or talk like a trafficker or a purveyor of child sex tourism—whatever I needed to do. Then I started to infiltrate different organizations in horrible places in Mexico and Colombia."
He also told how the mission began to destroy his mental-health:
"The U.S. government didn't realize what it was doing to me. They were basically destroying my soul, not only because I was being exposed to things—and we have regular checkups with mental health professionals—but the part that was the worst for me was I would go down and find the kids, and I couldn't believe how vast it was. I couldn't believe how big it was. It was at this time we started getting the numbers, and it was in well in the millions of children."
After Tim left Homeland Security he knew he needed to do more to help the millions of children being trafficked or at risk from trafficking. To this end, he set up Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) in 2013, bringing together contacts in the CIA, Homeland Security and state and federal police departments.
The group soon formed a 'jump team' made up of 100 people that could travel anywhere to take down child trafficking rings. Their missions have included actions in Haiti, Colombia and other nations in Central and South America. To date, they have saved almost 1,700 children from sex-slavery.
A movie called, "Sound of Freedom", starring Jim Caviezel and Mira Sorvino is in the final stages of production and will be finished once the CoVid-19 pandemic has passed. Tim has also written a book called "Slave Stealers".
The “Sound of Freedom” starring Jim Caviezel and Mira Sorvino. I am blown away by the support for children today, it will be remembered forever. This doesn’t end here. The work keeps going. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. #endhumantrafficking #july30 pic.twitter.com/1Z1yTYehr1
— Tim Ballard (@TimBallard) July 31, 2020
Tim and his team continue their fight against this wicked crime.
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