Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What is becoming one of the biggest child recovery operations
in American history. Operation Dragon I successfully recovered sixty critically
missing children in the Tampa Bay, Florida area. These were
trapped children and they've got the bad guys in custody.
Joining us now to talk about this mission, Jared Hudson,
whose organization has certainly been key and instrumental in doing
(00:21):
this very same thing when it comes to trafficking and
young people like this as well as some adults as well. Jared,
welcome in. Thank you so much for being here. What's up, JT.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
You know, it's good to talk to you two days
in a row. I guess right.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Well, I got to tell you man, you're on the
hot button of a lot of things happening around our
country these days, and especially with what's going on in
your experience as a Navy seal militarily, and I appreciate
you coming on yesterday and now I see this story.
I said, I got to talk to Jared. I mean,
this is right in your wheelhouse and talk to me
about the mission that obviously, these multiple different agencies, Tampa Police,
(00:56):
shaff departments, and different counties and cities are working together
to get this done. This is a pretty good one.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, no, it is. I was actually probably two months ago,
I think is when they were prepping for this, maybe
a little bit longer. I was contacted by somebody from
the Florida AG's office specifically about this and on some
programs that we have that could help them out. And
after talking to them, you know, we didn't work with
(01:23):
them on this, but knowing what they were doing. The
Marshall Service leads the charge on child rescue efforts, and
I believe this is the largest child rescue operation or
the most successful child rescue operation in US Marshall Service history,
which is huge. And with all that being said, sixty kids,
(01:43):
you know, And this is what I want to bring
up to people so that they understand kind of the process.
The kids are rescue and it's not like what people
see in the movies, right, And you might have some
kids that are literally stolen in traffic, but generally speaking,
it is Yeah, I think ninety three percent of the
offenders are the child or the kid being exploited. Whoever
(02:06):
it is that's being exploited knows the offender ninety three
percent of the time. So this is children who are
at risk, whether they're in the state system or whether
they have a bad family home that they know of
that they're going out and rescuing. And then obviously with
the open borders, a lot of immigrant children are involved
in this as well.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Wow, I had no idea that statistic was so high
that they knew the bad guys when they were taken.
These are kids in this sting operation nine to seventeen
years old. So you're saying, with numbers sake, ninety three
percent of these kids knew the person that they ended
up getting in a vehicle with got taken with.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Well, no, and it's not even that most of them
live with. The ninety three percent of the exploited children cases,
especially sexually exploited is probably where that statistic really strictly
comes from are known offenders, which makes it hard when
you're law enforcement dealing with a kid because it's a
person of trust. I think forty six percent is a
(03:06):
person of trust, which means that's you know, a coach,
a teacher, a pastor, you know, a distant relative, and
then the other whatever makes up the rest of that
ninety three percent, like thirty seven percent I believe is
a mother, a father, a close family member. So with
that being said, why would the kids trust law enforcement
(03:29):
of the state or anybody you know that they're saying, hey,
just just work with us, trust us. That is not
a that's not the case because they're supposed to trust
have proven proven themselves untrustworthy, and that is where you
get most of your at risk children.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, eight suspects have been arrested in this operation here,
so you're saying that it's not like the movies. Are
these kids swear? Are they being held in homes? Are
they in warehouses?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And you know Fayesse cages now, So a great example
would be, let's let's look at the border situation was
created by the Biden administration, you know back in you know,
the last four years I guess before Trump won this presidency.
So you look at the open border situation and at
the border, guys would cross more. They're doing biometrics on
(04:16):
people without getting into what they do with the court systems,
and the two years out would udicay your case in Birmingham, Alabama,
let's say, and then they just release people out of
the country, right, they would cross with kids and if
they were under eighteen, I believe was the ice rule,
they didn't run biometrics on them, so you just had
random kids that had no biometrics, nobody knows who they are.
(04:37):
You had them coming into country and so those children
are being exploited and a lot of times they would
go to families that are there to take care of them,
but those families receive money for taking care of them.
And it's a federal system much like our state systems DHR,
child Protection Services or anything like that, where these kids
are at risk because they don't have anybody who you know,
(05:01):
they don't treat these people don't treat their kids like
I treat my three daughters. Does that make sense? Yeah,
that is. So it's not that they're stolen from somebody
they don't know. That does happen, but it's very rare.
It's that they're exploited by people that they know and
they're supposed.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
To trust, which makes it even sicker to me. You know,
you got a family member of friend, it's like, okay, look,
I love you and I'm going to take care of you.
But meanwhile, here's a buddy mine named Bob who's going
to spend about an hour with you if you don't mind,
all right, well, I'll see it a little bit. You
know what the hell I mean, these people are the
worst of the worst, and I have a bullet in
their head in two seconds here. If you're doing the children.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Goodbye, no, no, one hundred percent. And so with this
operation Dragon, I that's why when you say when they
say sixty critically missing children, these are children that they
had some knowledge of that haven't checked in. The families
that are supposed to have them don't have them. They're runaways,
they've been sold whatever it is, and that's who they found.
(05:59):
And these are I think I texted you this. These
are the hardest, most expensive types of investigations that exist
because it is very difficult finding these kids. But then
also when you find them, understanding if they are being
exploited or if they are at risk or if they're not. So,
you know, good on all of the agencies that were involved.
(06:21):
I think you had Marshall Service, some local agencies, the
Florida AG's office, a couple of sheriff's offices down that
way working on this. And so everybody knows this operation
over two weeks that resulted in eight arrest and sixty
missing kids being found. You're probably looking at you know,
seven hundred and fifty thousand and one and a half
million dollars would be roughly the range of the costs
(06:43):
that the Marshall Service did one last year in twenty
twenty four. And I can't think of the name of
the operation off top of my head, but it was
six weeks long and it was a couple million, like
maybe two or three million dollars. So these things are expensive.
But if if our tax dollars are going to go
to something, these are the things that they need to
(07:04):
go to. Yeah, you know, not stupid things that we see.
I think the one last year you could probably look
at up was like Operation we will Find You or
Operation and We'll find you too, or something like that.
And that was a six week operation and they got
about two hundred recovered about two hundred missing.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Kids during that But in my opinion, worth every penny
spent on this. So good job on law enforcement on
this one, and thank God, hopefully save these sixty billion
missing children you know, for the long term. Now in
good care. Jared Hudson, thank you, buddy, I appreciate you
coming on this morning.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Thanks brother, having go
What is becoming one of the biggest child recovery operations
in American history. Operation Dragon I successfully recovered sixty critically
missing children in the Tampa Bay, Florida area. These were
trapped children and they've got the bad guys in custody.
Joining us now to talk about this mission, Jared Hudson,
whose organization has certainly been key and instrumental in doing
(00:21):
this very same thing when it comes to trafficking and
young people like this as well as some adults as well. Jared,
welcome in. Thank you so much for being here. What's up, JT.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
You know, it's good to talk to you two days
in a row. I guess right.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Well, I got to tell you man, you're on the
hot button of a lot of things happening around our
country these days, and especially with what's going on in
your experience as a Navy seal militarily, and I appreciate
you coming on yesterday and now I see this story.
I said, I got to talk to Jared. I mean,
this is right in your wheelhouse and talk to me
about the mission that obviously, these multiple different agencies, Tampa Police,
(00:56):
shaff departments, and different counties and cities are working together
to get this done. This is a pretty good one.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, no, it is. I was actually probably two months ago,
I think is when they were prepping for this, maybe
a little bit longer. I was contacted by somebody from
the Florida AG's office specifically about this and on some
programs that we have that could help them out. And
after talking to them, you know, we didn't work with
(01:23):
them on this, but knowing what they were doing. The
Marshall Service leads the charge on child rescue efforts, and
I believe this is the largest child rescue operation or
the most successful child rescue operation in US Marshall Service history,
which is huge. And with all that being said, sixty kids,
(01:43):
you know, And this is what I want to bring
up to people so that they understand kind of the process.
The kids are rescue and it's not like what people
see in the movies, right, And you might have some
kids that are literally stolen in traffic, but generally speaking,
it is Yeah, I think ninety three percent of the
offenders are the child or the kid being exploited. Whoever
(02:06):
it is that's being exploited knows the offender ninety three
percent of the time. So this is children who are
at risk, whether they're in the state system or whether
they have a bad family home that they know of
that they're going out and rescuing. And then obviously with
the open borders, a lot of immigrant children are involved
in this as well.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Wow, I had no idea that statistic was so high
that they knew the bad guys when they were taken.
These are kids in this sting operation nine to seventeen
years old. So you're saying, with numbers sake, ninety three
percent of these kids knew the person that they ended
up getting in a vehicle with got taken with.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Well, no, and it's not even that most of them
live with. The ninety three percent of the exploited children cases,
especially sexually exploited is probably where that statistic really strictly
comes from are known offenders, which makes it hard when
you're law enforcement dealing with a kid because it's a
person of trust. I think forty six percent is a
(03:06):
person of trust, which means that's you know, a coach,
a teacher, a pastor, you know, a distant relative, and
then the other whatever makes up the rest of that
ninety three percent, like thirty seven percent I believe is
a mother, a father, a close family member. So with
that being said, why would the kids trust law enforcement
(03:29):
of the state or anybody you know that they're saying, hey,
just just work with us, trust us. That is not
a that's not the case because they're supposed to trust
have proven proven themselves untrustworthy, and that is where you
get most of your at risk children.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, eight suspects have been arrested in this operation here,
so you're saying that it's not like the movies. Are
these kids swear? Are they being held in homes? Are
they in warehouses?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And you know Fayesse cages now, So a great example
would be, let's let's look at the border situation was
created by the Biden administration, you know back in you know,
the last four years I guess before Trump won this presidency.
So you look at the open border situation and at
the border, guys would cross more. They're doing biometrics on
(04:16):
people without getting into what they do with the court systems,
and the two years out would udicay your case in Birmingham, Alabama,
let's say, and then they just release people out of
the country, right, they would cross with kids and if
they were under eighteen, I believe was the ice rule,
they didn't run biometrics on them, so you just had
random kids that had no biometrics, nobody knows who they are.
(04:37):
You had them coming into country and so those children
are being exploited and a lot of times they would
go to families that are there to take care of them,
but those families receive money for taking care of them.
And it's a federal system much like our state systems DHR,
child Protection Services or anything like that, where these kids
are at risk because they don't have anybody who you know,
(05:01):
they don't treat these people don't treat their kids like
I treat my three daughters. Does that make sense? Yeah,
that is. So it's not that they're stolen from somebody
they don't know. That does happen, but it's very rare.
It's that they're exploited by people that they know and
they're supposed.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
To trust, which makes it even sicker to me. You know,
you got a family member of friend, it's like, okay, look,
I love you and I'm going to take care of you.
But meanwhile, here's a buddy mine named Bob who's going
to spend about an hour with you if you don't mind,
all right, well, I'll see it a little bit. You
know what the hell I mean, these people are the
worst of the worst, and I have a bullet in
their head in two seconds here. If you're doing the children.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Goodbye, no, no, one hundred percent. And so with this
operation Dragon, I that's why when you say when they
say sixty critically missing children, these are children that they
had some knowledge of that haven't checked in. The families
that are supposed to have them don't have them. They're runaways,
they've been sold whatever it is, and that's who they found.
(05:59):
And these are I think I texted you this. These
are the hardest, most expensive types of investigations that exist
because it is very difficult finding these kids. But then
also when you find them, understanding if they are being
exploited or if they are at risk or if they're not. So,
you know, good on all of the agencies that were involved.
(06:21):
I think you had Marshall Service, some local agencies, the
Florida AG's office, a couple of sheriff's offices down that
way working on this. And so everybody knows this operation
over two weeks that resulted in eight arrest and sixty
missing kids being found. You're probably looking at you know,
seven hundred and fifty thousand and one and a half
million dollars would be roughly the range of the costs
(06:43):
that the Marshall Service did one last year in twenty
twenty four. And I can't think of the name of
the operation off top of my head, but it was
six weeks long and it was a couple million, like
maybe two or three million dollars. So these things are expensive.
But if if our tax dollars are going to go
to something, these are the things that they need to
(07:04):
go to. Yeah, you know, not stupid things that we see.
I think the one last year you could probably look
at up was like Operation we will Find You or
Operation and We'll find you too, or something like that.
And that was a six week operation and they got
about two hundred recovered about two hundred missing.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Kids during that But in my opinion, worth every penny
spent on this. So good job on law enforcement on
this one, and thank God, hopefully save these sixty billion
missing children you know, for the long term. Now in
good care. Jared Hudson, thank you, buddy, I appreciate you
coming on this morning.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Thanks brother, having go
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