Photos: Operation Toussaint Documentary Screening at Franklin Theatre

Tim Ballard & Operation Underground Railroad held a special screening of Operation Toussaint, a documentary about Ballard and his special forces team who went undercover in Haiti to bring a ring of sex traffickers who bribed their way out of jail, to justice. Ticket sales helped to fund special-ops to arrest human traffickers and rescue children. The event was hosted by local artist Paul Cardall on May 22.

Tim Ballard left his post as a special agent for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to form Operation Underground Railroad and go undercover to rescue child sex trafficking victims that he couldn’t save when bound by government restrictions.

During the evening performances were given by Scooter Brown Band, daughter of Travis Tritt, Tyler Reese and Craig Morgan.

When we asked about the need for Operation Underground Railroad, Ballard explained.

“It’s the fastest growing criminal enterprise on the planet,” said Ballard. “The United States is the number one country in the consumption of child-rape videos. Foreign countries will ask O.U.R. to infiltrate the American networks in foreign countries or foreign traffickers are looking for Westerners which allows us to infiltrate the networks allowing us to rescue children.”

Those who work with Ballard are highly trained and range from former Navy Seals, CIA, Homeland Security and other law enforcement with undercover experience.

Ballard shared that most ask the question, is this really happening? In the documentary, he said you will see the reality of sex trafficking as their team wears a body cam, there’s no dramatization but real-time operations, real-time extraction of victims and arrests.

To date, the organization has rescued 2200 victims in 20 countries and helped to bring to justice 1100 traffickers.

Part of the rescue mission is aftercare, they have partners in all of the countries they work where they provide a safe place for the victims to heal.

In Tennessee, O.U.R. is partnering with Rescue 1 Global. To learn more about Operation Underground Railroad, visit their website.

See our photos and video below.