Everything was planned perfectly down to the last detail, but as events unfolded, not everything went according to plan.

The Opportunity

The rescue operation began several weeks ago, when a few undercover Jump Team members from Operation Underground Railroad were approached by a man who eventually became known as the “Fabricator.” He obviously thought these were American tourists looking for a good time. He had pictures and prices and was ready to make a deal. It almost seemed too easy for the O.U.R. Team.

Falling Apart

It turns out that the “Fabricator” was making up the entire story. O.U.R. operatives discovered the pictures of the girls he claimed to be able to provide for the American tourists were, in fact, photos from the Internet. He had also insisted that the undercover operatives pay a deposit before any further arrangements be made. O.U.R. refused to gamble with donor money; the deal soured and everyone walked away disappointed.

Rebuilding the Case

However, the O.U.R. Jump Team was not ready to give up just yet, and they returned to the country a few weeks later. They followed secondary leads they had gained during their first visit, and the new suspects turned out to be the real deal. They not only had pictures, but also were actually able to show their victims to the O.U.R. operative. The traffickers were ready to party.

The O.U.R team leader reached out to the Latin American government again to see if they would be willing to take another chance. “He said, ‘If you guys are still ready, we’re ready.’”

The plan was to have a sex party under the guise of a 16 year- old’s birthday party.

The Party

“On the morning of the operation we thought we would help take down two trafficking networks,” noted the O.U.R. Jump Team leader. “Two networks total, each of them bringing about six girls.

“However, about an hour before the operation our advance team, who was in near constant contact with the traffickers, started getting texts from these guys saying, ‘Oh, I’m bringing a friend to control the girls, or an associate is coming who is bringing more girls.’ So they started bringing more people who wanted more money.

“This brought on the most dangerous part of the operation, the last -minute introduction of additional traffickers.

“So all of a sudden I’m racing to feed this information to the police so they would be prepared for the total number of arrests and rescues that would be needed.

“Then the traffickers showed up to the house. Our team welcomed them in, and everything was well planned. We moved the girls upstairs with one of the female jump team members so they would be sheltered from the police break-in and multiple arrests that would take place. There were no men upstairs to traumatize them anymore. We had chips, pretzels, soft drinks and music playing to try to calm them a little bit and we directed the traffickers all the way to the back patio on the ground floor.

“We sat them in a semi-circle around the table facing away from the front entrance so they would not see the police come in. I sat on the other side. The predetermined sign for the police to enter, once we had everything in place was, ‘Let’s have a tequila.'

“After a couple minutes we had everything ready and I called for the tequila. About two minutes later the police entered in a perfectly choreographed manner, sending one team upstairs to protect the girls, a second to arrest the real traffickers, and a third to arrest the entire jump team and keep up the ruse that we were the bad guys.”

The Rescue

“There were 16 girls in the upstairs room, seven of which were minors. Some were the younger sisters of the traffickers, according to police, and many appeared very nervous and unaware of why they were at the party, as some had been tricked or forced into coming. When the police came in the girls appeared very, very scared. The police kept saying ‘You’re not in trouble,’ trying to calm them down because they were scared.

“Meanwhile, the other victims started talking to police and the country’s equivalent of child protective services, and shared information on the traffickers and their network. The victims made it clear that they were tricked into being there and did not want to be forced to perform sex acts.

“The great thing about the post-rescue rehabilitation plan is, because we already had our in-country network of rehabilitation contacts in place from an earlier O.U.R. rescue, they immediately got in contact with the authorities and were ready to assist the minute these girls got out of the custody of child protective services.

“The rules in this country state that if you’re over 18 you can prostitute yourself if you want to, however, a third party cannot prostitute you or profit from your prostitution.

“That’s why our Latin authorities asked us to make it very clear on the envelopes in which we put the money, you put the number of dollar bills, hundred dollar bills, they wanted us to write clearly in Spanish, ‘For Manuel. For Carlos,’ etc. and ‘Thank you for the six girls. Here’s the price.’

Summary

“It’s always a fine line that we walk in these situations, not knowing whether or not we will be able to pull off a rescue, so it’s a credit to our advance team who refused to give up, and when the first suspected trafficker failed to pan out they continued to ask questions,” said O.U.R.’s Jump Team leader.

According to O.U.R., “The beauty of it for the government is that they don’t have to expend any resources until we have a case for them. We do all the prep-work and use limited donor funds for maximum effectiveness.

It’s a tricky business developing relationships, finding the right partners and rescuing the children from the grips of greedy sex traffickers. And it doesn’t always go according to plan no matter how much you prepare. Fortunately, as a result of the experience and training O.U.R. Jump Team members have, even though things didn’t go according to plan, everything ended up successful, with the bonus of additional traffickers arrested and girls rescued. Go Team O.U.R.!

*To protect ongoing rehabilitation and investigations, some names and places have been changed."