Elizabeth Smart Teams Up With Operation Underground Railroad

Tech startup Operation Underground Railroad is saving kids from human traffickers

Source: Venturebeat

Above: Tim Ballard, Elizabeth Smart, and Sgt. Ray Loera. Image Credit: Tim Ballard 

Operation Underground Railroad chief executive and founder Tim Ballard walked into the Imperial County Sheriff’s office Thursday night with a young blond woman in tow.

In a meeting room, Ballard, 38, and the young woman sat down. The executive flipped open his laptop. Seated across from Ballard was Imperial County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jimmy Duran. They talked about a few things. About a suspect the sheriffs would arrest the following morning for distributing child pornography. And about the data mining software platform Ballard trained them to use that led to the suspect.

“He brought the technology here that allowed us to make the case. From what I’ve seen, this is a very effective tool for law enforcement. And as a result of using it, we made a good arrest,” Duran said.

As for the young woman who accompanied Ballard to the meeting? Elizabeth Smart, the Salt Lake City teen who was kidnapped from her home in 2002 when she was 14 and spent nine months of living hell as her captors drove her around the country. Smart, now a contributor for ABC news, works closely with the startup.

Ballard calls the software a child protection system (CPS). Incredibly, he and his team had trained the Imperial County Sheriff’s office how to use it the previous week. If they hadn’t, the suspect, who was busted early Friday and charged with possession and distribution of child pornography, would likely have escaped detection.

Ballard, a former CIA veteran and ranking Department of Homeland Security official who ran the agency’s crimes against children unit, is the chief executive for one of the most unusual tech startups you’ve never heard of. Along with social media director Jesse Stay, 28, and operations chief David Barlow, 42, he combs the world with a proprietary CPS data mining software, ferreting out the worst pedophiles and freeing children enslaved by human traffickers.

So far, the team has rescued 35 children and uncovered child trafficking networks in the U.S., Haiti, and Nicaragua. Dozens of child sex offenders have been locked up.

The startup was launched last year with $1 million after Ballard left his job with the federal government, seriously turned off by the beauracratic infighting and frequent refusals of his superiors to let him pursue the most heinous of child trafficking cases, many of them abroad but with roots in North America.

“I was being told, many times, ‘no, it is not in the interest of the United States.’ In 95 percent of the cases I was investigating, they said no because the cases couldn’t be tried in U.S. courts. So I left,” Ballard told VentureBeat.

At the heart of OUR is the startup’s data mining platform. The technology acts as a sniffer, which they deploy against networks that child traffickers and pedophiles use to communicate with each other. CPS can monitor communications through ISPs. And through its data mining protocols, Ballard and his team can isolate, and monitor, the most egregious offenders. CPS is open source.

“It’s an extremely important software platform,” Barlow said. “Using it, we’re able to see patterns, find out who the worst offenders are. Once that’s done, we’re able to prioritize who to go after.”

Both Ballard and Barlow declined to be more specific when describing the software platform’s attributes.

If you call OUR a small group of virtual vigilantes, you’d only be half right. The team has trained dozens of police agencies in the U.S. and abroad on how to use the software. When the team virtually locates offenders, they begin their investigation. After making sure the individual or group is their intended target, they head to the airport and fly to that city or country and contact authorities there. They then train them on the use.

“It’s a way to multiply ourselves in other countries so good work can be done,” Barlow said.

When the team, based in Salt Lake City, heads to foreign destinations, they can count on backup and muscle from a number of sources Ballard is friendly with from his days as a spy or his stint at DHS: former special forces operators: SEALS and Green Berets, retired FBI agents, and cops.

“They do it for free. They want to help,” Ballard said.

The team firmly believes in the power of disruptive technology. And they are adapting more of it. Social media director Stay told VentureBeat that they have begun beta testing Google Glass to film raids and takedowns in realtime and simultaneously feed the video, audio, and images to Instagram and other social media platforms. Stay obtained his glass from the Google Glass Explorer program recently.

Tim Ballard and Haitian Rescued Child

Stay has his work cut out for him. The group’s Facebook page only has 35,000 “likes,” too small a number for a group devoted to saving children. Indeed, the startups motto is “We Rescue Children From Sex Slavery. Help Us!”

“We will begin using Google Glass to start recording from a first person point of view and then feed the information to social media audiences,” Stay said.

While the OUR team raised a $1 million for the startup, they rely on donations to keep the company going. Details on how to help are listed on their website.

Dangerous pedophiles and those who traffic in children are a serious global problem. The team recently discovered, during an investigation in Haiti, that members of a church group in that impoverished country were selling children for $15,000 a piece and then shipping them by boat to customers in Miami.

Those engaged in the odious behavior now have another reason to look over their shoulders, thanks to OUR.

And they are watching.

“Once you share a file, I know who you are because this is your ISP,” Barlow said.

Back in Imperial County, east of San Diego, the hit on the suspected pedophile’s house went down Friday morning like clockwork. Sheriff’s deputies kicked in the door and a few minutes later marched the suspect out in handcuffs. He was placed into a car and taken to the nearby jail, where he was booked on multiple child pornography counts. The suspect was still being processed late Friday.

For Imperial County Sheriff Sgt. Jimmy Duran, the software was the key factor in the investigation and subsequent arrest. Police had no idea the man even existed because he had a clean record.

“It wasn’t until they brought us the technology that we had a case. And when we did,” Duran said, “we started to work it.”

Rescue Update on Operation Voo Doo in Haiti

Tim Ballard with rescued child in Haiti

The following are excerpts from an interview with Founder and CEO of  O.U.R. Tim Ballard on his recent visit to Haiti to check up on the 28 children he and the "Jump Team" rescued in February. 

Q: You just went to Haiti right and checked up on those children you rescued in February? Can you give us an update?

A: Yes. To see these kids, they’re totally happy now.  They were just shattered before and now they’re not. After just two months there we can see physically they’re getting fed.  They’re being taken care of. They’re licensed and it’s a pretty nice facility where they’re at.

Q: Are there any of them that will be returned to their parents? 

A: No.  None of the parents have been found. In most cases they probably wouldn’t be. But, we don’t know about all of them.  They’re still looking into some of them.  Half the kids went to one orphanage and half went to the other one. They’re (the orphanage) still looking into the where-a-bouts of the kids and a lot of it is still tied to the investigation which is still pending. The women are in jail still. That’s just part of the process.  So, we’ve had a lot of people interested in adopting these kids so we’re working with adoption agencies and there’re several families who really want to get these kids.

Q: I heard you were interested in adopting two of these children.  Can you tell me about that?

A: Yes. We’re one of those families.  The hold up right now is that they’re tied up with the investigation so once there’s a sentencing of the women and the cases are over the kids become adoptable. When I was down there I met with the head officer who runs all adoptions in Haiti, a very high level person, and she was so gracious, and she knew exactly who we were and about the operation so she’s going to help us.  We consider adoption part of the rehab process too, if we can get these kids into homes.

Q: So the child you’re holding in the picture, is he the one you want to adopt?

A. Yes,  him and his sister.

Q: And how old are they?

A: Three and four.

Q: And what is their story? I mean, where are their parents?

A: The story the traffickers gave us is that they are both dead.  They were killed in a murder/suicide, but that’s something they would say anyway.  That’s what they (law enforcement) are investigating right now. But unless they can find the parents or find that there are  no parents or find the parents and they say that they can’t take care of them then they are not adoptable. So that right now they are working on tracking this.  And we’re still heavily involved with the operation in Haiti. We’re closing in on some of the traffic organizations.  That’s one of our next sting operations that we plan.

Q:  If someone wanted to adopt one of these children what would they do?

A: I would send them to our web site at OURrescue.org and we can connect them with the adoption agencies.

Q: A lot of people ask what they can do to help.  Is this something you would like to see them do?

A: This is something we want to start a chain reaction with.  Do you want to help? Do you have space and means to take one of these kids in?

Q: Do they speak English or French?

A.  They speak Creole and a little French maybe.  They learn English real fast.  Actually, in the place we have them at they teach them English.

Q: So the three women are in jail?

A: Actually there are two.  The other woman is an undercover cop.

Q: What is the latest on that?

A: It’s in the judicial process.  They do hearings and they’re investigating.

Q: Do you have to go back for any of that?

A: I might have to go back and testify.

Q: Do you have any upcoming rescues planned?

A: We have several but we can’t really give any details.  We have one in Guatemala, we have another one in Colombia. We have two in Colombia we’re working on.  Another Haiti one.  And then we have several in Mexico that we’re working on.  

For more information or to help with the cause please visit ourrescue.org

Children Rescued in Prostitute Ring in Colombia

Youngest Prostitute  is Eleven Years Old

O.U.R. Founder and CEO Tim Ballard recently returned from a rescue mission in Colombia in which  he and the Jump Team rescued 26 children and five adults used in a prostitute ring.  The adult prostitutes were there mainly to keep the children in line. In the following interview Tim Ballard talks about the mission and how it all went down.

Q: What is your most memorable moment with the Colombia rescue?

A: There was this 11 year old girl.  She was really afraid.  There were several of them but there was this one little girl and she was just shattered. A lot of them were but, she was wearing a T-shirt and basketball shorts and she looked like she’d just walked out of junior high school and she was being controlled by one of the adult prostitutes. 

I was down with the traffickers and she was down with the other kids.  There were  26 all together – minors. There were a couple of them that were like 11 and 12.  She just really stood out and when they (traffickers) got them back into the party she just hid into a corner in the back yard. She kind of became the face of the rescue. 

We didn’t get any contact with them after the take down. I’m a bad guy (undercover) anyway.  If she ever saw me she’d know me as a bad guy.  We had Lori Holden, she’s an actress on the TV show The Walking Dead. She came along with us.  She’s an ambassador for us and she was back with the girls. They came in and her job, along with several others was to keep them calm, especially when the take down was happening. She identified these younger girls and she actually connected with them and she was hugging them and crying with them and telling them they’re free.  She actually got that experience which was really cool. 

Q: How does an eleven year old end up in this situation?

A: They’re just coerced by the traffickers.  They’ll go to them, either directly to them or it’s some connection, usually the trafficker has an adult prostitute friend and this will be the adult prostitute’s favor or some connection like she’s in an impoverished family and sometimes the parents know something and sometimes they don’t know anything. But sometimes they know something and they’re getting in on the take too which is incredible to believe. 

Unfortunately, on this case, and I don’t blame them. They're (law enforcement) really tight lipped about sharing anything with us. We’re not in the “need-to-know” with these cases, what happened to each one of these girls and so they’re not going to tell us. That’s probably wise. So we don’t know.  But sometimes we do. 

We have operations where, because of the nature of where we’re working, we get to know in depth.  On this one we didn’t get to know the details. But that’s how they end up.  It’s poverty. They’re deceived. The families are deceived. They’re told one thing.  Sometimes the kids are taken to another place.  The traffickers were telling us, and we can’t get a confirmation on this, maybe someday when it all comes out but, the  trafficker told us one of the kids was from Mexico and had been kidnapped and smuggled from Mexico. So that happens a lot too.  

They’ll go to a family and deceive the family, some poor Mexican family.  We’re going to take your child to the capital.  To the city. She’s going to be a nanny for us and she’s going to get paid and she’s going to go to school and she’ll call you every week. The parents get $500 or something and they take the girl and instead of Mexico they go to Columbia. And they never hear from them again. That happens a lot.  The traffickers were telling us one of the kids was that.  So the Colombian officials confirmed that so they’re keeping all the information about the kids really tight-lipped.

Q: Isn’t part of what you do is rehabilitation?

A: Yes

Q: How can you do that if you don’t know their story?

A: Well, every case is different. In Haiti we have access to the kids. In Colombia, we partnered with an organization called  Renacer *. They are a non-profit organization that’s licensed with the country of Colombia and they actually take care of the kids.  They have beds there.  They have psychologists and educators and they’re there for as long as they need to be.

Q: So you just turn over the children to them?

A: Yes, the Colombian officials after the arrest goes down.  And with good reason.  We never have possession of the kids. The Colombians always keep control, as they should. And they’ve already partnered with Renacer* so they take the kids there. In other places like Haiti, where there’s not an established relationship we’ve found a rehab center, an orphanage, ahead of time, a couple of them.  So before our operation we talked to the Haitian officials and said this is where the kids need to go. These are good licensed orphanages and so they respected that and made sure those kids ended up there.

*Renacer  is a foundation that cares for children and adolescents who are victims of commercial sexual exploitation.

For more information on Operation Underground Railroad please visit us at https://www.ourrescue.org/