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Ex-White Sox’s Baseball Star Adam LaRoche Joins Operation Underground Railroad To Save Child Sex Slaves

By Tara West
Published on: 06:35 PST, Apr 26, 2016

The beloved former White Sox star, Adam LaRoche, made national headlines when he left the team after the organization requested that his son spend less time in the team clubhouse. The doting father said he understood the team’s new regulations, but simply couldn’t adhere to the policy, so he retired from baseball early. However, it seems that LaRoche has been spending his time doing much more than hanging out with his son. The former baseball star has been working as an undercover operative with Operation Underground Railroad, an organization that saves child sex slaves around the globe.

The Daily Mail reports that former White Sox player Adam LaRoche has been making the best of his time since leaving the team in March. LaRoche made waves in the baseball community after he revealed he would be leaving the White Sox prematurely following new regulations regarding players’ children in the clubhouse. LaRoche gave up an astonishing $13 million by cutting out of his White Sox contract a year early, but said he had no other choice after it was determined by White Sox executives that his son could no longer come to work with him every day. Once LaRoche learned his son would not be able to attend practice with him, he decided his time would be best spent at home.

“I just remember saying I’m going to take him every chance I can. Because some of my best memories came with my dad taking us to the park, whether it was spring training or during the season. It’s stuff I’ll never forget … I’m just trying to do everything I can do to enjoy it, because I know how fast it goes. I know how fast he’s going to be grown up and have different priorities other just hanging out with Dad all day.”

However, it seems that LaRoche has been focusing efforts on not just his own son, but children around the globe. It was revealed that Adam LaRoche has been working with international child sex trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad. The former baseball star has worked with nonprofits aimed at ending child sex trafficking in the past. In fact, last November it was revealed that LaRoche worked with the organization Exodus Road in a bid to identify underage child sex slaves in Southeast Asia. Since freeing up time by leaving the White Sox, LaRoche has been in talks with Operation Underground Railroad about ways he can help the organization.

The founder of Operation Underground Railroad, Tim Ballard, is a former CIA and Homeland Security employee who worked in the child sex trafficking division. He says that the government cannot tackle the problem alone, and that private organizations can do more by creating a movement to end child sex trafficking, as America is the largest consumer of child pornography in the world.

“The United States is the largest consumer of child pornography and the largest producer of child pornography in the world. And one of the benefits of being a private organization is that you can talk openly to the public about this problem. It’s not just some little peripheral thing. It’s so big it’s not going to go away until there’s a mass movement to shut it down. So I’m very pro bringing people like Adam LaRoche in. Yes you might ruffle some feathers but we’re trying to stop something that no one government, no one agency can stop on their own. We need a movement.”

Ballard says he has headed undercover missions across the globe and recently finished producing a movie which, using concealed cameras, follows several undercover operations in Haiti, and Cartagena and Bogota in Colombia. During the course of the movie alone, Ballard notes that 57 children were rescued, and 12 child sex traffickers were arrested. Ballard hopes with public figures like Adam LaRoche on his side, he can get the message out to the public en masse, starting a movement to end the horrific acts against children.

[Photo by Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo]

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