in women and children are victims of sex
trafficking this is a global problem
however our country is the largest
consumer and producer of child abuse
content and it's happening even in the
smallest communities even here in
Roanoke
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please put the drink down put the drink
down
what people don't understand is how easy
it is to purchase his child online it's
as easy as ordering a pizza what I say
to those that harm children is I much
rather be the person that's staring them
in the eyes then that child that they
showed up to harm the reason being is
I've seen those children I've looked
them in the eyes and I've seen the pain
and I've seen what they've gone through
and it much rather it be me than that
child what I would tell someone is this
is absolutely happening in your
community every time I set up one of
these ops they go all across the state I
always think you know no one's gonna
show up this time every single time
somebody shows up and every single time
we do these the number increases I can
think of one operation we did was in a
smaller community and I thought you know
we're probably going to get seven or
eight people and ultimately we ended up
arresting 26 and that's in a small
community where they thought there's no
way this is happening in our town so I'm
here to say absolutely this is happening
in your area people think that human
trafficking and child exploitation only
happens in third-world countries but the
sad fact is it happens right here in our
community we see it every day in 2016
the National Human Trafficking Resource
Center reported a hundred and six cases
of sex trafficking in Virginia and
Virginia did not criminalize it until
2015 the loose laws in our state in the
proximity to interstate 81 has made
Roanoke a key location for traffickers
to recruit and sell their victims today
we talked to one local man who joined
the fight at operation Underground
Railroad an organization whose mission
it is to save children from what has
become the plague of our generation
modern-day slavery
they go into the darkest corners of the
earth places you don't want to see
places where there is no hope working
with law enforcement they find and
rescue children from slavery this is
operation Underground Railroad
a nonprofit organization that was
created by Tim Ballard Ballard a former
special agent for the Department of
Homeland Security created the
organization several years ago with one
goal in mind to eliminate sex
trafficking worldwide one man who has
joined this fight is ex-navy seal and
Roanoke president Dave Lopez a friend of
mine from the military had me introduced
to Tim Ballard and oh you are on the
team it was right around the time of one
of their big operations that was going
on in South America and they needed some
extra help so they reached out to me and
that was when my eyes just were opened
to the horrors of sex trafficking Dave
along with other former CIA seals and
Special Op agents traveled the world
India Haiti Mexico collaborating with
the law enforcement of each region to
not only rescue these children from
slavery but to arrest the perpetrators
as well one of Dave's first missions was
in Colombia where he helped rescue a
hundred and twenty kids in one day the
area I was in in Colombia very very
hostile area it was the the first time I
got to see how these kids are treated
and be able to be a part of getting them
out of that situation and so for me
after that mission it was it was just
apparent to me that this is all I wanted
to do one of the most recent missions
named Operation to st. is the subject of
a limited-time private documentary a
project aim to wake people up to what
exactly is happening in some of the most
hellish places on earth something Dave
says the world needs to see it's
important to watch this documentary
because it's difficult for all of us to
wrap our minds around just how evil this
is
what that does is causes us to want to
not really process it and not really
validate that it's there but dave says
people need to be aware he now works for
operation Underground Railroad full-time
and believes this documentary will not
only help bring this issue of sex
trafficking front and center in people's
minds but also inspire people to get
involved to do something about it it
does show the difficult real gritty side
to what sex trafficking is but it also
shows you hope it also shows you what's
being done to counter it it also shows
you rescues it also shows you
rehabilitation that's what people have
to see it's like I think they have to
have both they can't just we can't just
sit here and talk about how kids are
being trafficked everywhere it's too
dark for anyone to want to think about
that all day but if we can show both
sides yes they are being trafficked then
they're being exploited many kids over
20 times a day but now look what's
happening people are uniting against it
people are rescuing kids out that's the
part that I think will give people that
feeling of okay we can do something I'm
not just thinking about this for no
reason we've said everything
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in the past four years of existence
operation Underground Railroad has
rescued 1,400 victims and assisted in
the rest of more than 570 traffickers
around the world there are more people
enslaved today than in the history of
the world and the world has no idea this
documentary is an effort to wake them up
so the documentary is only available for
free starting today and only for a
limited time to sign up to see it and to
share it log on to our film dot org