’The Abolitionists’: Trained team rescuing child sex-traffic victims across the globe

you're watching footage of an alleged child trafficker negotiating with someone he thinks is a customer but the purported buyer is actually an undercover agent this remarkable video is featured in a new documentary called the abolitionists crime watch daily's melissa moore goes inside the film featuring ex-cia agent tim ballard and his team of highly trained operatives who criss-cross the globe rescuing children from sexual slavery we all know the term child sex trafficking but you see up close and personal you know i i sometimes like to use the term child sex slavery where they they force them to do sexual acts on video and i'm talking these kids are as young as seven years old they're younger tim is the founder of operation underground railroad on this mission the unit heads to the colombian town cartagena where cutting deals isn't limited to dark alleys we have to pretend to be sex tourists talking to taxi drivers sitting on the beach and waiting for a vendor to come up and start offering us everything from from drugs to adult women and eventually it comes up well how about children at that point we tell them that we want to have a party we want to have a sex party and we want children to be the objects of lust for this party for this job the alleged traffickers think they are bringing kids to a party where the children will be brokered to a bunch of american pervs but first the deal is struck seen here on hidden camera the big night comes tim and his agents spin an elaborate web no detail is left a chance we're gonna make a sign that says feliz cumpliano san maria we'll get some balloons those girls can do that yeah so we're gonna put that on the door just in case and that's for looking who's outside and see 30 girl 30 miners walking into a house tim briefs the team on how the sting will unfold the rendezvous point which a lot of you know is is the hotel at the end of this street don't talk about that outside this room then it's party time the girls are hurted like cattle traffickers thinking they're about to make a ton of cash charging 300 dollars per girl and a thousand for a virgin [Music] everyone's coming in [Music] the traffickers in addition to the 12 and 13 year old girls brought these adult prostitutes who kind of hovered over the girls kind of groomed them showed them what they're supposed to do and kept an eye on them and these poor little girls are kind of mixed and mingled within this larger body of adult prostitutes then on cue tim tips his glasses giving the colombian cops the signal to raid the phony party [Music] [Music] once the guys are arrested colombian child protective services march in to take charge of the kids the cartagena mission is a success with five alleged traffickers arrested and the 29 kids rescued these youngsters having no idea tim has saved them from their alleged abusers imagine that for the children as you're doing this operation they think that you're the bad guys yeah it's horrible it's it's one of the most difficult parts of the job because to maintain our security we get arrested with the rest of the actual bad guys have you ever seen a child realize that you were their rescuer one time it was october of 2014. it was the largest child rescue that i've ever heard of we rescued over 120 victims in this video a different mission the alleged traffickers brought children to an island thinking they were going to partner up with the undercover agents to build a child sex hotel but their plot was foiled the bad guys were arrested and somehow the kids learned that the americans were actually their saviors all the kids they're in these cabanas and they run to the windows and there's a screen and they start and they're crying and they're singing and they're saying thank you it was so emotional i mean my hardened operators are crying i'm crying one of my guys behind me remember grabs my shirt he's pulling on it and he's crying and he says he says this is you're hearing the sound of freedom but saving these kids is only part of what operation underground railroad does they also provide healing for the kids who will never forget the horrors they endured back in the united states elizabeth smart who was abducted as a teen and sexually assaulted is joining up with this bold rescue operation how did she team up with you i think what really attracted her her to to what we were doing was that we were going in and trying to rescue kids you know and because she told me she said you know i sat there for eight months hoping someone would just drop in out of the sky and rescue me she said you know i want to go back to the place in california where i was held captive it was so empowering and then she took us back to the camp where she was held and say yeah that's where he held me well that guy's in jail you know for life running operation underground railroad is expensive so to help cover costs tim launched a crossfit franchise a place where the agents work out to prepare for their missions and so crossfit actually subsidizes the operation that's right we have 110 members and growing every week and all the proceeds go right back into the rescue operations and some of the money is used to help victims move on to a better life we have victims who who aren't even aware of what opportunities are in front of them what can they do we have victims who want to be come a beautician who want to go back to school and learn trades so we can help provide those education services that they need during the making of the abolitionists 57 children were rescued and seven criminals are now facing prison sentences from 20 years to life and while the film documents a moment in time of humanity at its worst beyond the cameras tim will continue fighting to save its most innocent victims

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 4,372,794

Rating: 4.9610233 out of 5

Keywords: The Abolitionists documentary, ex-CIA agent Tim Ballard, Operation Underground Railroad, Crime Watch Daily, True Crime Daily

Id: 5otqrfTSq_c

Length: 7min 38sec (458 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 28 2020