Hello.
Hi everybody and welcome to the fit to fat to fit experience podcast. I’m your host, drew Manning and I’m your cohost Lynn Manning. Thank you guys so much for joining us on today’s episode. Now today we have a special unique episode. Most of the time we talk about health and fitness. We talked about, you know, losing weight and transformation and helping people overcome those types of hurdles. But today we have a special episode that we want to talk to you guys about and we are bringing on Tim Ballard from operation underground railroad, which is a nonprofit organization that basically it goes out and rescues child sex slaves all over the world. This is something that we kind of went back and forth on having the Tim on because it’s not fitness related, but we’re passionate about what their mission is and what they do and all of the good that they provide. Rescuing children from sex slavery, which is a lot more common than you would [inaudible].
Yeah. We were introduced to their organization about a year ago. The founder of the organization happened to work out at the same gym. That true was going to at the time. And when we learned about the alarming stats of sex slavery, not only within the United States, um, but obviously abroad, literally millions, millions of children and people are affected by this. We definitely started to learn more about it. We went and saw their new movie, the abolitionists that is not going to be released until February. And we just became passionate about their nonprofit organization and how they make a difference in the world. Not only showing that there is a huge problem, but then also having a solution of how they go in and they help and we can help to not just financially, which drew and I do contribute financially. But in addition to that, we all can just help by spreading the message, spreading the word. And that’s why we want to have him on today.
Yeah. So for those of you who don’t know, Tim Ballard, he’s the founder and CEO of operation underground railroad. And their website is O U R rescue.org and he also serves as their jump team commander for rescue operations. So he’s out there on the field in these third world countries setting up these sting operations with local law enforcement to capture the bad guys, right? These pedophiles that sell, you know, these hooks, sex slaves. So Tim actually began his career at the CIA where he worked cases dealing with terrorism and Latin America. He spent over a decade working as a special agent for the department of Homeland security where he was assigned to internet crimes against children task force. I’m so, he’s seen a lot of crazy things in his life and he talks about how he finds balance on this episode and he’s worked with every type of case imaginable in the fight to dismantle child trafficking rings. And he’s worked undercover in the U S and in other foreign countries to infiltrate child trafficking organizations. And, uh, so that’s, you know, we wanted to have him on to talk about what they do, how they do it, and how you can help them in this effort. And, um, I think anyone that is a parent will be passionate about this cause you can only imagine, you know, these children having to go through this and some we will warn you some of this is hard to listen to. So definitely some
listening discretion is advised. Definitely do not listen to this, um, out loud if there’s children nearby. Um, I’d warn you of that. That so,
yup. So, but first our show sponsors for today quest nutrition.com is a great company that we’ve been proud to have Aoun as a sponsor of this podcast. We couldn’t have done it without them. For those of you who don’t know who quest nutrition is, just Google quest bars and pretty much you can find their quest bars at gas stations, grocery stores, any supplement store across the country. I think I even saw them. Um, they’re at some airports, you know, um, which is awesome cause they’re so accessible, they taste great and it makes eating, you know, healthy protein convenient. Instead of having, you know, tuna or chicken or steak. The quest bars are so easy to bring when traveling or if you’re a busy mom or dad and you’re on the go, just grabbing a quest bar in your back pocket and uh, and having it there accessible makes it so much more convenient. Right?
Yeah. And you can find them almost anywhere. Like drew said, if you go into the show notes, the link there takes you directly to their website, which is the most inexpensive way to have their bars. We’d love to keep them on hand. I keep some in my purse in my car and just it’s convenient to avoid that fast food trap. Our other sponsor is dollar workout club.com where you get five at home workouts for all levels and we actually show you both beginner, intermediate, advanced and five healthy recipe videos, five motivation videos every week just for a dollar and there’s no hidden fees or contracts. We’ll put that website link in the show notes as well.
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So let’s go hang out with Tim Ballard, uh, founder and CEO of operation underground railroad. Alright, you guys, we’re so honored to have Tim Ballard on today’s podcast. Tim, thank you so much for joining us here on the fit to fat to fit experience podcast. Thank you for having me. It’s an honor to be here. Well, thank you so much man. And so for those who don’t know, our connection to Tim is, you know, Tim lives in Utah and we actually used to live there, but now we’re in Hawaii. Right? But we actually went to the same CrossFit box out in Saratoga Springs, shadow to you guys, Saratoga Springs, CrossFit. We love those guys, right? Yeah. And I met Tim there, you know, he’s working out, he’s got these, you know, six pack. He’s like, kill it. He’s killing these laws. I’m like, who is this guy? And then boom, I see him like on Facebook and people are sharing, you know, what he’s doing. But actually, Tim, I was wondering if you could give the people listening a little bit of background as to, you know, you used to work for the, you’re a member of the LDS church. Kind of give us a little bit of your background of what you did specifically at the CIA, if you can write, if you can, and just to give people an idea of, of where it all started. Uh, this, this mission for operation underground railroad all started. If you could kind of talk to what you did at the CIA first.
Absolutely. So I, I mean, I always wanted to be a special agent with the government and fight crime. Uh, but I never in my wildest dreams believe that would include, uh, crimes against children, uh, that, that’s such a dark thing that, that no one wants to talk about. And I’d get it cause I’d never wanted to talk about it. I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. Um, so I, I started with the CIA working mostly cases dealing with Latin American terrorism. Uh, after nine 11, I, I jumped over to the newly created department of Homeland security where, uh, I was, I did a lot more hands on, uh, activity. I was stationed at the border of Mexico and the United States in California. And six months into that post, I was called in and asked if I would be willing to help start a child crimes group.
And I said, no, I said that I had promised my wife that that’s one area that I would not get into. It’s too dark. I don’t know what effect that would have on me and my family. Uh, and in the end it was my wife who told me that I needed to change my mind and, and we needed to do this, uh, because, um, because there was just so few people doing it. And so I went in very, you know, consciously didn’t, still didn’t really want to do it. It’s such a dark place. And what I learned was just absolutely just astonishing. The numbers. This is the fastest growing criminal enterprise on the earth. It’s the second most lucrative crime on earth. That’s the kidnapping and trafficking of, of people and, and, uh, specifically of children. And so once I got into the, the cases, these numbers, we’re talking about millions and millions of children, it became so real as I saw these kids and we, we, we had the opportunity to, to help these kids and pull them out.
We would go in a undercover, we pretend to be travel agents of the most wicked kind, uh, leading tours, sex tours into different countries where Americans would come and buy tours and we’d bring them in and introduce them to the guy selling the kids. And then once you catch them on the act, you arrest them all and pull the kids out. And it was just so devastating. And the hardest part for me, and I did this for more than a decade, the hardest part was the fact that the vast majority of the kids that we would come across who needed to be rescued were not getting rescued, mostly because they fell outside of the jurisdictional purview of the United States. And so the Intel would bring back home and say, look, we need to go get these kids. Uh, the, the U S government would tell us what best not a U S case.
And so we’d have to walk away and, and I was just, I was asked to walk away just far too many times and then I kinda got this idea, well, what if I left? What if I created an organization where we wouldn’t be told no, that we could go to any country and partner with them. You see these other countries where the kids are being trafficked, they want to do something about this problem, but they don’t have the resources. Oftentimes they don’t have the know how the technology, and that’s what they always wanted me and the U S agent to bring them. But I could only go so far. Well now we can go right there and we skip a lot of red tape and bureaucracy. We go right into the problem. We equipped these governments with what they need and we stay with them and participate in the operations, going undercover with them in a legal manner in which they sign us up. And, and uh, deputy is essentially, and it’s been, it’s been absolutely amazing. What, what’s what we’ve been able to do. Uh, we are a nonprofit, so when I say we, I mean all the people who have come and stood up and, and helped us and promoted us and, and brought in the resources. We’ve been fortunate to, to rescue well over 300, uh, victims, mostly children in the last year and a half and about about different centuries. Um, so that’s, it’s amazing.
Yeah. And just to give, give people an idea. I know for myself, I didn’t know the extent of the problem that this was until we heard about you until we found out about your organization. And I also was very blinded thinking that this didn’t happen in America. You know, in America there, there isn’t this underground sex slavery, you know, children aren’t sold into slavery here. Children, you know, it’s not happening here at home. Of course not, it’s happening elsewhere. And of course I didn’t also think it was to the degree it was, but w can you give us some stats or estimations of how it is happening here in America? Absolutely.
In fact, we were very active in the United States. Uh, after our first year, we mostly did foreign work, but now we’re, we’re probably half and half a half our time right now is spent in the United States because it’s enormous here. So it’s, it’s estimated that there’s close to 10,000 children, just children who are smuggled into the United States every year and forced into sex slavery. Wow. That’s not even slave labor. And it’s not including the adult women and sometimes even men who are smuggled in for slave labor or sex labor. It’s estimated that there’s over 100,000 children forced into the commercial sex trade in the United States currently. And that number, of course, is growing by leaps and bounds. And so what we’re doing, in fact, if you Googled operation net nanny, you’ll see what we did a couple of weeks ago. We did an operation in Washington state. Uh, we, we, we find working with some jurisdictions that are kind of, uh, perhaps more, uh, underfunded and smaller counties.
Oftentimes that’s where the kids are being trafficked through. So we set up the sting operation in Washington state and put out some advertisements on social media where we were saying that we had seven year old and a 13 year old girl at this home. Please come here if you’d like to have sex with them. And you wouldn’t believe we had that ad out for 15 minutes and we had an in 15 minutes. We had to take it down because in 15 minutes we had just in the area we were working in Washington state, we had uh, over 30 people say, RSVP, I want to come do this. And then during the dates we set it up. Um, there’s a three day period, nine of those guys showed up with their cash sometimes with guns, with duct tape. And then also, and the other hand, you know, when one hand they’ve got video games and toys for the kids and the other hand may have condoms and I mean thievable and then of course they walk into the trap and we get written, they get arrested.
But this just shows in every city, in every town in the United States, there are pedophiles who are waiting for the opportunity to abuse our children. Uh, and so we’re doing a lot right now in United States to empower law enforcement and give them what they need. We have a couple of other major, major operations, uh, in, in the works right now. I can’t comment on the details, but you’ll, you’ll start seeing more of this coming out with, with our partnership with, there’s a lot of jurisdictions who are, who are wanting to partner with us to wipe out these horrible traffickers and pedophiles who prey on children.
Wow, man. So let me, let me ask you, are you guys running these operations here in the U S because when you, when you said that you were working for the CIA, you did these things overseas, but you had to be asked to step away because it was not under your jurisdiction. Is the CIA setting up these things as well with you guys have, since they can do the operations here in the United States since it is under their jurisdiction, has it, the CIA running it here in the U S or is it, are you guys doing it?
So we always work with partnerships and, and um, I, I did, I w I started in the CIA, but actually most of my trafficking work was done with Homeland security. But same really same difference in a lot of ways. But, but yes, to answer your question, yeah. So, um, initially I thought that our, this foundation of ours was going to be mostly a foreign based entity because that’s why I left. Right. Because I couldn’t help those kids cause and no one was helping those kids. Yeah. So our first year was almost exclusively out there. But then as we started getting into it and recognizing how incredibly porous our borders were. Now international, the problem was, um, even local jurisdictions including, uh, partnerships with federal agencies, including Homeland security, who I’ve worked with, we are working with them. Um, and, and even domestically, we’re working with them because even when they do have the jurisdiction, that wasn’t the only problem that I was seeing as an agent.
Right? A lot of times it’s just we can just fill in some gaps that they don’t have. For example, Homeland security is not a rehabilitation organization that’s there. They’re a law enforcement organization. Um, and so one of the problems that they have that I had in the government was, well, where do we make, where do we, how do we make sure these kids get to the right place? And they need partners like us, uh, private organizations who can provide that answer and say, look, if we’re going to rescue 10 kids in Los Angeles tomorrow, we better have 10 spaces where they can go a homes for them, where they can get the medical care they need and, and, and the, and the psychological care. So we do a lot of work on the back end there. Um, other times we can, you know, when you think about law enforcement, even the greatest cases, even that, uh, law enforcement agencies in the United States pull off.
They do. So with the help of informants, informants who they sign up, oftentimes these are dirty guys who have no criminal element and they sign up and they pay these guys to go in and, and do the dirty work. Right? We, law enforcement in United States has recognized in the last many months that that’s all we are to them. That they, that we can be that them, we’re not some organization competing with them and by any stretch we can, they do. We don’t want to do what they do. We just want to support them. So they can actually, and they’ve been doing this, they can sign us up as informants and our guys are former Navy seals, former CIA, former Homeland security, uh, guys who are clean, who, who have had background checks and, and they become the informants for law enforcement and they can go into dirty places and they can go into the dark places on the dark web or bars and brothels and making move and get information in ways that agents in the U S government can’t always get. And we’re not asking for pay either, like the dirty informants do. And so they’re recognizing that and they’re there. They’re coming to the table now and wanting us to do more with them.
Wow. Man, it must take a special kind of human being to be these types of informants, right? Like I don’t know how someone could do something like that. And that kind of leads me to my next question for you to M like, you’re such a, you know, down to earth kind of guy, you’re, you’re happy. How does someone like you who’ve seen, who’s seen what you’ve seen, how do you come home to your family and smile for your kids and smile for your wife and be happy about life? What are some things that you do that keep you grounded, that keep you sane, that keep you from being depressed about all this that’s going on? What are some of those things that you do and you can be totally honest and open about it. So
there’s a couple of things. Cause that’s a great question. This was the very reason I was hesitant 13 years ago or 14 years ago to even get into this, into this, into this industry, if you, if you will. Um, and there there’s probably three things directly that I can say that keep me sane. Uh, one is my wife and my family who are so supportive, and I have a wife who I can share almost everything with and just great support to is his prayer and my faith and the feeling that I, I know that, you know, we believe this work is God’s work and, and, and, and that he will take care of the, the, the, the hard parts of this. He’ll, he’ll let me go home and help me clean out my mind so I can still be a good father and husband. Yeah. And that’s an important element. And the last one, uh, is, is CrossFit.
That’s cool.
If I don’t get my wad in, and I’m not saying this because I’m doing a commercial,
okay.
Sounds like, as I’m saying it, but it’s absolutely true. I need to get that, that worked out in a, it is so incredibly healing and cleansing. Uh, if I don’t do it, I start mentally and emotionally start suffering. And so it’s, it’s a hue. It’s just a huge blessing to be able to work in a group. I have, uh, I, we have a box attached to our office. So, uh, that that’s, it’s, it’s great to be able to jump in and get my, my dose even a couple of times a day. I need to
your dose. I love that man. No, those are so important. You know, cause I think people, you know, don’t understand, you know how strong you have to be emotionally to be, you know who you are. I don’t think I could do what you do, Tim, to be honest with you. It, it’s, it’s very difficult. But you know, I think people want to know how you do it. Um, so talking about CrossFit, you, what got you into CrossFit? Like what’s your connection to CrossFit? I know you’ve done these like in these throw downs with the people like rich Froning or Jason Khalifa, these big name CrossFitters. What did, what was your connection to CrossFit and how did that tie in to operation underground railroad?
A couple of things really. I, I um, I’ve tried to do intense workouts ever since I started in the child crime. Before I did tell crimes, I would just go to the gym and, and really do silly workouts. I didn’t realize how effective they were.
Bicep curls and bench press.
Yeah.
Okay.
And then I, I, what did, I started getting into the child crime that I needed. I was recognizing that I needed something more intense to really cleanse me and, and do a good job. And I started to P90X, which I did, which is very similar in a lot of ways. It’s similar to CrossFit and that kind of, and I did that for a couple of years and then that was awesome with helping me. I kind of Peter now because there’s, there’s, you know, it’s, it’s the same, it’s the same routine really. Um, and so I wanted something even more intense, more diversity. And I just, I saw the Saratoga Springs CrossFit when I was driving. I moved to Utah to start our there and I thought, you know, I heard about this CrossFit thing, I’m going to try it. So I just started working out there and just fell in love with it.
Like this is, you know, I, I’m always sore, which is a good thing. You know, I, I never, I never, uh, come out unsatisfied. Um, and so it was doing the trick just for me mentally and emotionally for the job I was doing. But then as I was building our, I just happened to be going across, but at the same time and I was recognizing that these are unique people that come here to be today. I mean, someone who, who’s that dedicated to fitness, uh, and puts themselves through that much pain every day is the kind of person who I want to help me with other things cause they’re there. They’re there. There are people who are, who are very active, right? They’re very, you, you just have high quality people in the box. And so I was noticing that I was doing a lot of my business before or after the workouts.
Um, and frankly I started recruiting people to help me with our, uh, and then it got even better. So, you know, it’s kind of tribal. People say it’s cultish, which I don’t like that word, but it kind of is like, it’s like a family. People kind of come together and they want to do more than just work out and they see a conflict. This, these are the kinds of people that jump on. And I was so surprised when CrossFit corporate started learning about, uh, seeing us in the media and they ran somebody over CrossFit corporate kind of read something once about how, Oh, these guys do CrossFit. So they reached out to us and became one of our major corporate sponsors. I helping us all sorts of things and they sort of made contact to the champions like, you know, like rich Froning and Matt Frazier and, and, and we did it last year.
We did our first Throwdown with them and they all showed up and the media came, uh, people like Progenics and kill cliff. Um, these, uh, some of these, uh, kind of companies that support CrossFit, they jumped on board and, and supported us and made donations and, and provided services in one way or another. And really it was that idea of, you know, what, I want to continue with this family, this, this great things happen. That’s why we, um, and, and actually CrossFit corporate cars, CrossFit actually helped us come up with the idea of, well, why, what happened? What if you made half of your office across fit box and we help you do it, we help you support you in it. Um, and we, that’s what we’ve done. Uh, so our headquarters in Draper, Utah, uh, we have a CrossFit box where people come in and all, they’re, all the memberships, all the fees, uh, above cost of course, of the, of the gym itself go right back into the foundation. Uh, they, it’s, it’s supporting us in, in a major way. And again, it’s not just the, the gym membership, it’s the fruit of, of cultivate itself, the fruit of the members themselves. Cause now they go out and say, Hey, I want to go help with this program or this project or this fundraiser. And it’s, it’s, it’s just using the energy of the people who do CrossFit and making abolitionists out of them, making them part of the team. And it’s just been an amazing partnership.
Yeah. I loved when we, when we lived in Utah, we were able to go see the film, and correct me if I’m wrong, it’s called the abolitionists, correct? Yep. And, um, man, that that film was so powerful. Um, it, it walks through, of course, the whole journey, the missions, um, the meaning behind it. You see firsthand scenes, real scenes from missions that you guys have been on. Um, people that you’ve helped. And of course, people that are within the organization also, um, share their story. And there were celebrities and other people. They’re really helping and coming together. Um, how, how do you get those celebrities? Do they come to you guys because of the cause, or is this something that you’ve been able to reach out to get celebrities to help you further promote your mission?
Yeah, it’s amazing. The people who’ve come to us, it’s been shocking to me.
Yeah. Can you name some of them too?
Yeah. So, and, and this is, and not just, not just actors and actresses, but, but absolutely like, um, people who have come to us, uh, even recently, uh, uh, Kelly Preston is, is one. Um, they’re, uh, Laurie Holden. Laurie Holden is, she was an actress. She was, she’s on the wall.
The walking dead. Yeah. Yeah,
yeah. She was at that film premiere.
Right. She’s in the film pretty much. She’s actually in the film. She actually has come on operations with us. Um, uh, we have, uh, like local politicians who are super supportive. Governor Herbert, uh, uh, trade general Sean Reyes, who’s, uh, he’s on a board of governors and he’s, I mean, I’ve probably talked to Sean a couple of times a week about what he can do to help us. He’s always trying to help promote what we’re doing and,
and like people like Elizabeth smart, right? I mean she went through, you know, she obviously went through a similar horrific experience and I know that she’s a big proponent of what you guys do.
And, and really what she says about her partnership with O U R is what these other people are saying is that she’d never seen an organization that we don’t just wave a flag of awareness and say there’s a problem actually going in and extracting children from sex trade. And there’s not many organizations that do that. And so I think that’s what attracts people to it. It’s hard to watch the flag of awareness sometimes away because it’s a very dark flag. And, and, and you, you, you, you watch it. Okay. Okay, great. So kids are being kidnapped and tripped all over the world. Now what? Well, the, the, the light is, is, is, is sometimes very dim with, with other, um, organizations. And I’m not talking ill of them. I love the Bay. They’re out there. It’s an important thing. But I think that the attraction to us, to us is that we, we do the same thing. We wave that dark flag, but then we’d say, but look over here, we have a solution. We are actually pulling kids out of this and you can help us. That’s why I think brings people to the table.
Yeah, no, and I agree with her. I, I S I see you guys as a very organize organization that knows what they’re doing. And it’s not just like, Hey, we pulled them out and then we’re done. [inaudible] you guys help them afterwards, right? There’s counseling and there’s services to help them find their families. Right? It’s not like, Hey, we saved them. Good luck. You know? And
absolutely. Absolutely. And it’s frankly, it’s one of the more challenging parts of the job. It’s much more difficult. It’s as hard as the rescue is itself. It’s a, the, the aftercare is, is a, it’s a challenge. It’s cause you’ve got to find the right partners overseas and, and, and you’ve got to make sure these kids stay there, that they have the support there. So, and that’s where we were grateful for Elizabeth smart and ed smart who works full time for us, uh, in his job at to make sure that we have those partnerships in place. Um, we, we recently, um, a rescue operation in Mexico, well, actually it’s, it’s three or four months ago and, and one of the, the children that we pulled out of there, we, we got them into one of these safe houses that we had pre-vetted and we’ve made several trips back to make sure she’s doing okay.
And, and because of the confidence that, that she has been able to get, you know, we’re, we’re actually helping her pay her schooling and she wants to go to beauty school one day. We’ve already pledged to her that we will both take care of that for her. What’s amazing is the personal healing is reflected in what she did just a couple of weeks ago. She, she got confident enough and she saw herself as something more than just a prostitute or someone who sold for sex. Right. And she saw herself as not that. And that’s our goal. It’s helped her see herself as who she really is and her potential and to be thrive in the survivor. And she came out and she said, I need to talk to the police. She brought the police in and she started telling the police all of, uh, all this amazing Intel that she hadn’t shared before, which led to an immediate bust and rescue of other kids and the arrest of a bunch of other, just horrible people who are now in jail. Uh, and, and she just, it’s very therapeutic for her and she recognizes she has value here on this earth. And so, um, it’s just one of those super success stories. It’s fresh in my mind cause it just happened. Uh, but, but that’s what we do. The rescue is not complete until those kids are healed and they are thriving on their own. Wow.
That’s huge man. So Tim, can you describe for, for everybody just how these missions go down? Like, cause I’ve, I’ve had a couple of buddies, uh, you know, drew Riker and, uh, Christian, you know, be a part of these operations. Can you describe like, you know, how they go down for the most part, um, where you take them overseas and you get this like fancy, you know, place and you, you all act like you’re certain people. Can you talk to that a little bit?
Absolutely. Yeah. It varies a lot. What we, how we do, um, operations. Um, for example, last week we were in India and it was very different than, um, then what we’ve done in other places. Uh, we, we went in and we pretend to just to be viewers, Americans who were at these brothels de nightclubs in India. And they kept bringing these girls out and we could tell they were underage girls, often from other countries, and you just look in their eyes and you know, they didn’t mean to be here, they’re not supposed to be here. And so we just kind of set up surveillance on these places and notice that those girls, they never left after the show was over. All, all the, the owners and the managers all left and the girls never left. And so we were able to do some, some, uh, investigative techniques and discover, but these girls were, uh, they were being kept as slaves and controlled and they were actually living in behind trap doors.
And they’re living behind the dry wall and like spaces like four feet wide, no water. And they this, can you imagine, they live in this little cell. There’s, they’re, they’re their slaves. And then they, the trap doors when they open up nightclub and bring them out and forced them to dance and, and have sex with the client. And then back, they go trapped behind the walls. Um, and just last week we busted one out and we bring the police in and they, they busted out, pull the kids out, get him into, into rehab. But in the last couple of weeks we’ve done three of these and they’re all three with the same operation where they keep these kids behind, um, behind, uh, behind these trap doors. Uh, KSL just did a story on it. Um, if you go to ksl.com it’s just Sunday and just two nights ago they did a big story on it and we show some footage of the, of the, of the conditions that girls were living in.
So I’d encourage you to go check out that story and spread it far and wide cause it’s a good example of how that’s one way we operate. Other times, like the missions you mentioned, we’ll set up these, um, sex parties. So we’ll, we’ll go into countries and pretend to be travelers looking for sex and we’ll meet these traffic version and they’ll have kids as young as 11, 12 years old. And we’ll tell them that we were, we’re here cause we want to set up the big bachelor party, have all the girls come in and, and we’ll rent a big house and the traffickers will all get together and bring all the kids. And once we make their money exchange and [inaudible] and all that, then the kids get pulled out and rescued and the bad guys get arrested. We get arrested too to keep our cover up.
And of course we are working, uh, in lockstep with, with law enforcement and that country. So that’s another type of operation. We’ve done. Another tide, we, we, we have software that we are building software that allows, um, and, and, and investigative techniques that allow law enforcement to go online and go into the dark web and find pedophiles and people trading and child pornography. That’s one of the most important aspects of operation underground railroad is bringing technology to those in the U S and outside of the U S who don’t have it. I mean there’s tools out there that, that exist and other tools that we’re building that would blow your mind. I mean these tools can, can rescue tens of thousands of children in one year if everybody, wow, we’re trying to get these tools out to everybody. So much of what traffickers do and pedophiles do is online. That’s where they find the kid, that’s the Tran, the kids, that’s where they share child pornography. And so we have this, we have uncovered ways to, to find them in places where they didn’t think they were discoverable and [inaudible]. And that’s what we’re building these tools and we have some amazing partners in the high tech industry who are helping us. And then our job is to help that process and get these tools into the hands of law enforcement everywhere. And then we, and then we can leave and they have the tools and we could just go away and they’re still out saving kids every day.
Yeah. Dude, that is so amazing what you guys do, and that’s why we had you on Tim, is just to help bring awareness to make people aware that Hey, there’s, this is real like this. There is this world out there and we can make a difference. Right. It’s not like, you know, Oh, well, you know, it sucks that there’s this problem and there’s nothing we can do. We have a solution now with operation underground railroad. How, how have you guys grown since you guys started and you know, where are you guys at as far as growth wise and what’s your plans for the future as far as, you know, do you plan on taking over the world and ending it completely? Like where do you see operation underground railroad in the next five years, for example? Yeah,
we are shocked at the growth we’ve had. I, I never, if someone had shown me where we’re at right now, a year and a half ago when we started, I never would have believed them. Uh, so we’re, we’re, we are, we’ve been to every continent where I think we’re in our 15 or 16 country now. Um, and, uh, we, we’ve just, every month we’re able to do more because people are getting on board and allowing us to do this. So yes, our goal is the complete eradication of the trafficking and the selling of children for sex. And, um, that seems like a lofty goal. Uh, it seems naive except I, I believe it’s, it’s possible. Now can we go in and physically pull out, uh, you know, two, 3 million children’s second is, no, we can’t do that. But what we learned in Columbia last year, we did four operations in Columbia. And then after we went back into those places pretending to be with different American faces, pretending to be travelers looking for the same thing, and nobody would sell to us.
Nobody would talk to us. In fact, bad guys on the streets who otherwise would have introduced us to traffickers and, and got their commission for doing so were warning us, don’t do this. Haven’t you been watching the news? Everyone’s scared. We’d shut it down because we’d done that. We’d been so active. We actually shut it down and bad guys decided it wasn’t worth it, worth it to kidnap and tell kids anymore. Whereas before they were working with impunity. Now they’re scared to death. Now how long would that attorney last? I don’t know. But I do know this, that if we were in every country, every infant infected nation on earth, which has been pretty much every nation, and we were big enough to where we were doing, working with law enforcement, doing operations once a month in every city on earth, we would have a deterrent effect. So powerful that the barriers to entering that dark market would be too high and travelers would stop traveling, traffickers would stop. And so that’s how we plan to do this. We want to have offices in every country on earth and, and we’re working towards that right now.
That’s awesome, man. Are you worried about creating enemies and people being more aware of what you guys do? I mean, is that even a thought or are you just like, you know, cause you’re putting people, you’re, you’re having people volunteer to be undercover. And this is just my curiosity. Do you, are you ever worried about their safety, these people that are volunteering to be, you know,
yeah, good question. The answer is those people are volunteering. We have to contract with them and [inaudible]
okay. Yeah,
hang them. And we make them very well aware of, of, uh, of all the risks involved. And, um, so they, they go in knowingly and willingly. Um, and, and, and, and yes. Um, there the risk of course in, in doing this, um, in terms of our exposure, you know, once you’re exposed and we keep, we keep tabs on our guys, the guys, we th whose faces have come out and cause some guys have to come out and talk about it. And once that happens, you’re no longer, uh, a candidate to go into cover anymore unless you slept with some crazy often disguises. Like I’ve, I’ve written myself right out of, of operations cause I’ve, I’ve come out, um, unless we can find some, some good disguise, like I said, uh, and so there’s kind of a revolving door. And so we would never use the same guy after he’s already been exposed to the media or whatever.
Um, and in terms of the bad guys, for example, knowing our texts, I get a lot of people asking me, Oh man, they’re gonna know it’s you. You know, and so they’re not going to show up to your parties or whatever you’re doing. And I say, you know what, if they stop showing up to my fake sex parties then then I won the game. All we’re doing is exactly what the real bad guys are doing. We don’t do anything different. So somebody could literally watch the abolitionists show on a Wednesday and they would, they would have no idea that it’s us on Thursday in, in, in Guatemala, setting up a similar party because we are always changing our faces and our tactics. We’re just doing what the other bad guys are doing, what the other travelers are doing. And if they did say, well I’m not going to show up at this party because it might be those guys, then hallelujah. That means they’re not showing up at any parties anymore. That means we’re doing what we’re, what we set out to.
Yeah. Like you said, I think the greatest thing that you’re doing, cause it’s impossible to, you know, like you said, go in and eradicate this completely, but as you set up all of these missions, as you go around the world, doing it over and over again, the word does get out. You know, there’s big organizations now that are coming in. This is, you know, it’s harder to get away with it and just limiting, you know, those bad guys from that opportunity for them to be scared and worry about getting caught. That’s a win. You know, that’s a huge win. Um, w we want to try to, to end, you know, talking about a lot of the, I know this is such a somber topic, it’s, it’s hard to talk about, but, um, I want to talk a little bit about, about the good. I mean, you guys are doing so much good and there are so many successes. Um, if you want to finish up, I’d love to just hear, I know that you, you shared one story. If you want to share any stories, uh, stats or successes from, from your organization. I think that’s a great way. And then we want to talk about how people can find you and help and contribute to this cause.
Absolutely. So like I said, we, we, we feel like we represent at least one light in this dark world that, uh, there is a solution. There is hope. There’s hope for kids in places where before there was no hope, no one was looking for them. No one had a plan to get them. And that’s where we work. We work in those places where there was no plan. And now there is a plan and that’s in the U S and outside the U S like I said. And so we want to be that light for the world. And, and we’ve, we’ve rescue over 300 victims so far. But remember, those are just the victims that we have seen that we can actually count. It’s probably tens of thousands of kids who are no longer being threatened by traffickers because those traffickers are in jail. So there’s kids who, uh, who don’t need to be rescued and didn’t know that they needed to be, but otherwise would’ve been taken.
Right? So we don’t know the full effect of what we’re doing, but we know it’s, it’s, it’s enormous. And so we ask people to join us, help us. The more resources we get, the more, uh, kids we can save and, and, and people can come to our website@ourrescue.org and learn more. The other great thing about us, I think, is that we are the most or one of the most transparent charities on the planet because everything we do gets filmed by outside organization who filmed it. So we can prove to you, we can show you where your money’s going. We can show you that we are pulling children out of this and putting bad guys in jail, uh, because it’s, it’s all out there in the media for people to see. So we, we, we hope people will come on board and join our cause and join our team.
Yeah. And talk to us about your CrossFit box, like where that’s located.
CrossFit is right off the 15 in highway 15 in Draper, Utah. Uh, it’s right by the Donalds for those in Utah. We would love for you to come join our, our gym. I promise you. I’ve been, I’ve been in hundreds of boxes cause everywhere we travel we find them and we love it. You’ll never find a box like this one. It is, it has the best equipment because we had the best sponsors who gave us the best. Uh, it’s enormous. It’s, it’s, uh, it’s a place where you get to work out with our, with my team members, best coaching on the planet, uh, and it’s, the prices are lower than most and all the fees go right back to save kids. So there’s no downside, uh, on this one. So please, if you’re in the Utah area, please help us out. Come work out with
and where can people go see the abolitionist movie? Like it’s a documentary, basically summing up what you guys do.
The documentary, it will come. It’s actually going to have a theatrical elite release in, in February. Uh, we’ve done you, you guys came to one of the private screenings that are very rare these days that they’re very, they’re just, they’re private pre screenings. Uh, but the big premiere will be, um, sometime in February and it’s gonna have a full theatrical release. So stay tuned for that. And when that comes out, we need everyone to get in the theaters and, and, and, and get this thing moving.
That movie you guys, I’m not kidding. That movie was so powerful. Um, man, it makes me tear up just thinking about it. But um, yeah, everyone should go see that movie so much,
Tim. We just want to say thank you for what you do. Um, you’re an inspiration. Um, and we thank you, you know, being the, the father of two little girls and can only imagine, um, the hell that people have to go through and knowing that this world exists and knowing that there’s people like you out there doing good in this world and being a light, um, makes me so grateful. And uh, if you can be depressed about it and, and know that exists, but you can also find some light and know that there’s hope out there. So thank you for coming on. That’s why we wanted to have you on was to share your message and share what you do with the world. So I can’t thank you enough
you guys. I appreciate it so much.
Yeah, and just, just to kind of conclude real quick for anyone out there listening, you know, I know we’re not always in a financial position to be able to contribute. If you’re not able to contribute financially, one of the biggest things you can do is honestly share, share about their organization, share it on social media, let your family friends know about it. Let people know in the movie comes out. You know, all every effort helps just bringing the awareness out so that other people that are in a good financial position to be able to help can contribute to this nonprofit.
Excellent. Thanks so much.
All right guys. Thanks Tim. And uh, we’ll be in touch man. Thank you. Have a good one. Thank you. Bye bye. Thank you guys so much for listening to today’s episode on the fit to fit fit experience podcast. We hope that you were inspired and moved to help out in this mission to help out operation underground railroad. If you do feel inclined to make a donation, please go to our rescue.org but if you can’t, we totally understand and the best thing you can do is to just share this episode and share about operation underground and what their mission is. The more exposure they get, the more awareness that’s out there that easier their fight is against these overseas or even domestic organizations that have you know, these child sex slaves. So please you know, do what you can to help out. And if you enjoyed today’s podcast episode, please let us know what you thought about it and the show notes. If you would like us to do other episodes similar to this, please let us know. Leave a review on iTunes. Will you read all of those and please subscribe. If you guys enjoy your podcast, if you want to get ahold of us, please feel free to reach out to us on social media. All handles are@fittwofattwofitwiththenumbertwoandmywebsiteisfittofattofit.com
and you can sign up for the newsletter there. Yeah, and all of my social media handles are@thenumbertofitathomeandmywebsiteisthenumbertwofitathome.com and you can sign up for my newsletter there as well. All right guys, thanks.
Thank you guys so much for joining us and I’ll see you back here next week.
