CBS News’ straight coverage of the real-life raid in Colombia that rescued over 50 children and inspired the movie.The sting operation was led by Tim Ballard, a former Homeland Security special agent from California.
Having worked undercover on child trafficking cases formore than a decade, he quit his law enforcement job in 2013 to hunt down pedophiles abroad and free the children they enslaved.
The story not only raised awareness about the mushrooming issue of child sex-trafficking and exploitation, but it turned Ballard and his nonprofit, Operation Underground Railroad, into the object of media interest.He was profiled in Forbes with the headline “Meet a guy who has devoted his life to freeing slaves” and appeared on a series of networks. “When we did our first hits in 2014, 2015, it was all the mainstream outlets,” Ballard told The Post. “Equally Fox News, equally MSNBC.
I went on CNN.”All that attention also caught the eye of Mexican actor and producer Eduardo Verastegui, who wanted to turn Ballard’s tale of heroics into a movie.
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