Anti-Human Trafficking and Tim’s Secret Principle of Life — Part Two: Promises to Keep in Cartagena
“I want to share a principle with you. A principle that is applicable to all of us in whatever endeavors we are pursuing; whether we’re at home making ourselves a better father or mother or spouse or business owner, employer, or employee. It’s almost like a secret principle that I learned. I’m not a master of it, but it’s maybe one of the most important things I’ve ever learned. I’ve learned it through working in the trenches of child sex slavery and trafficking.” Tim Ballard, Founder of Operation Underground Railroad.
In Tim Ballard’s recent address at the 2019 South by Southwest conference, he takes us through three stories from his crucial efforts in anti-human trafficking. Through these experiences we can learn the principle which has allowed him and many others to do incredibly profound work, helping to liberate exploited children throughout the world. This article walks readers through each story, highlighting his secret principle of life and its role in enhancing the lives of those who employ it.
Part 2: Cartagena, Colombia — Promises to Keep
Training in Colombia
As a government agent, Tim was often deployed on training missions throughout the world. On one such mission in Bogota, Colombia, Tim was scheduled to train a group of Colombian agents using a routine curriculum written by his department. The training was designed to help the Colombian agents learn how to infiltrate a child trafficking ring. Despite how interesting this might sound to you or I, the training had become quite monotonous for Tim, and he had not seen a whole lot of practical results come from these rote training efforts.
“These are trainings you have probably all been a part of. It feels like they check the box and you did it, but no one really did anything with it. It was one of those and I was tired of it.” Tim said in his SXSW address. So, as he was opening the training with his laptop ready to present, he suddenly said, “I’m not going to do this again,” and shut his laptop abruptly. “Let’s just go rescue kids. We have three days together, let’s create an operation that’s going to end in rescuing children and getting them on the road to healing.”
As you can imagine, the Colombian agents got pretty excited about this idea. They began talking about the best place to do such an operation and a little resort town came up, Cartagena. It’s a place where cruise ships come in and frequently foreign sex tourists land, creating a real demand for child sex. The Colombian agents had some intel on the area and possible traffickers to target, but they said to Tim, “We need you to bring in a team of American operators, to play the undercover role of American sex tourists.” And by so doing, they would be able to lure the traffickers into their grasp.
The Promise
At SXSW Tim recounted, “So I am sitting there making all these promises, I’m saying YES when I don’t have the authority to say YES. I say, ‘Sure, two months, you got ten agents, what else do you need?’ We figured the cost would be about $100,000 to pull this right. ‘Sure! I’ll get it for you, no problem!’ I am on the plane after those three days, flying home, sweating. I’m thinking, what have I done?”
The training had not really gone according to the department’s plan or protocol. Tim felt uneasy about explaining the situation to his boss and was realizing he had made some really great promises that he would not easily keep. His boss was less than excited about the report, and told Tim that he would have to call and cancel the whole thing. Heavy hearted Tim went home and told his wife about the situation.
“What do I do?” He said, “These are real kids, we’ve already identified them! I made myself the bait! If I walk away…”
“Well, if you have to keep your promise, you’ll have to quit your job and go do it.” Tim’s wife stated simply.
“With what money?!?” Tim rejoined.
“Oh… we’ll just raise the money.” She replied matter of factly.
Tim: “But we have six children!”
His wife simply said, “Nope, you made a promise and those are real kids.”
So, the journey began, leaving his government job and starting a new foundation, Tim created Operation Underground Railroad, raised the needed funds, put together a team of 18 former CIA and special forces operators and got on a plane for Cartagena.
This was the first operation of O.U.R. and it was actually covered on the CBS evening news:
This case was different
Acts of service, pure intentioned, unpaid, non-mandated service, can lead us to do things that are out of our comfort zone, but bring great rewards. And that is just what this operation was about. It was different from anything Tim had done up to that point. No one was getting paid, everything was on the line, and no one was backing them up. They were on their own, simply seeking the welfare of children enslaved in Colombia. Showing gratitude for the little miracles that had brought them to that point, by putting all their effort into the rescue.
At a crucial moment in the operation’s setup, Tim found himself sitting in a room, across the table from a trafficker named Edward. This man had been identified as the main trafficker in the area.
Tim had been in this sort of situation many times before, infiltrating a trafficking ring, gathering information, negotiating with people who were very determined to do evil things. If they were to ever suspect the truth about who Tim really was, they would kill him. So, no false moves, if you get the picture.
As Tim was sitting in that room, he felt a familiar feeling, it began to flow through him, almost as if he was in a meditation or prayer service. He felt energy and creativity, in contrast to the stifling darkness and gravity of the situation.
The negotiation began.
Edward said to him, “I’ve got 15 kids.”
Tim thought, the most I have ever rescued in 12 years was 7 in one operation, and that was huge! But as the creativity flowed, he thought to himself, No, there’s more kids here, and once we take Edward down, it’s going to scare all the others, and they’re going to hide their kids even deeper.
Tim felt his horizons expanding, the creativity flowing, and the principle working. He turned to Edward and said, “Look, I’m not interested in just one sex party. I’m not interested in just that, I want to be a business partner with you. I want to bring clients in, what’s your business model? How are you going to grow this thing?”
Intrigued and beginning to trust, Edward slowly unfolded the most wicked business plan Tim had ever seen. He had purchased two acres of land on an island off shore, where he was planning to build a hotel. But the hotel would just be a front for what the establishment would really be, a sex club. The club would sell memberships to wealthy foreigners who would be able to move in and out of the place without worrying about law enforcement because the island is pretty much unmonitored. But Edward needed a million dollars to finish the project.
“Done. I can get you that… if I can be a 50/50 partner with you.” Tim began to reel in the deal and Edward was chomping on the bait! “But you only have 15 kids,” Tim said, “that’s not going to cut it. I need to know that there is more product here.”
Edward deviously replied, “I’ll give you a call.”
Edward began calling all the other traffickers in town, to set up a meeting between them and Tim. These traffickers later agreed to bring over 50 children to a giant sex party to show Tim that they had enough slaves to satisfy their horrific business plan. And everything was going according to Tim’s plan.
The Operation
Tim’s team had rented a house for the operation. It was all set up, cameras and recording equipment hidden and wired the entire place. The Colombian authorities were staged off shore and waiting for the word to move in, and alongside them the aftercare team would also be waiting to take the kids to a safe place and begin the healing process. As soon as the code words “Bring out the wine!” came over the live wire, signifying that the transaction had taken place, the offshore teams would know it was time to crash the party.
Just as planned, the traffickers arrived with 50 children who were led into a separate room. Then the traffickers and Tim’s team took their conversation into another room, where they finalized their deal, and counted the money out on a table. Everything looked right so they applauded and said, “Bring out the wine!” getting ready for the authorities to bust down the doors in about 5 minutes.
But nothing happened…
Carrying on, joking, laughing, and acting their part while a few more minutes went by, but still nothing happened. Little did they know that the aftercare specialist’s boat had broken down, and the operation could not be completed without aftercare onsite. An undercover Colombian agent in the house informed Tim of this, “They will be here, but you need to stall these guys for 30 minutes…”
Tim started to get nervous, because if the party didn’t really get started soon, the traffickers would begin to wonder, this is a sex party…why aren’t these Americans asking for the kids to be brought out from the other room? They would get suspicious, and they eventually would notice things they didn’t notice before, like cameras, wires, and American undercover operatives.
The Principle
In that moment, Tim began to experience a familiar feeling, it began to rush through him, he felt creative, and courageous. It was now or never for his team and these 50 kids in the other room. Somewhat awkwardly, Tim brought everyone back to the transaction table and said, “Look before you bring out the kids, we’re stalling a little bit because we feel nervous about something, we need to know how you five are going to split up your 50% of the partnership. We are going to split it equally among ourselves. Have you guys discussed this?”
Slightly confused Edward replied, “Yeah, just like you guys, we are splitting it equally.”
“No, that’s a bad idea,” Tim retorted, “because Kelly (one of the traffickers) is 10 times the recruiter that all of you guys are, I think she should get 80% of your 50%.”
Then sitting back, Tim’s team didn’t have to say a word for half an hour as the traffickers argued around the transaction table, and cameras and wires listened in on the “who is the best child trafficker” debate. They were still arguing when the Colombian authorities came through the door. As they swarmed the room, arresting everyone, and the aftercare team found the children, Tim’s little principle for life rang true. And his focus began to turn to another tragedy happening in Haiti.
Read Part 3: Haiti — Smiling in the Storm
