The seedy motel room is still and silent when there are three timid knocks at the door. After a silent “ok” nod from the man hidden in the corner of the room, a petite blonde young lady with a ball cap on opens the door to the stranger and says “Hey. Come on in!” The man, in his mid 40s, enters through the door and immediately chaos ensues. Within seconds the man is facedown on the floor with three police officers holding him down and slapping handcuffs on him. Within the hour, he will be heading to jail. Perfectly executed.
This scene has played out multiple times in multiple cities across the country under the watchful eye of local law enforcement and Covenant Rescue Group operators and advisors. This was a child sex trafficking sting operation and the man in handcuffs thought he was coming to meet a 14 year old girl.
Covenant Rescue Group is a nonprofit organization based out of Gardendale and founded by Navy SEAL veteran (and current Jefferson County Sheriff Republican candidate) Jared Hudson and his wife, Lauren. Jared spent 6 years as a sniper in the SEAL Teams before being medically retired. While serving multiple combat deployments in some of the most dangerous places in the world, Jared saw firsthand the evil face of human trafficking on a global scale. After leaving the Navy, he and Lauren felt a burden from the Lord to take the skills Jared had acquired in the Teams and use them to combat the growing pandemic of the buying and selling of human beings.
After the military, Jared spent a few years working as a contractor overseas and also as a law enforcement officer before opening his company, The Shooting Institute (TSI). TSI trains law enforcement, military, civilian, and other agencies and groups in a variety of weapons and tactical specialties. Jared soon saw the opportunity to create training specifically designed for agencies and units that are on the front lines in the war against human trafficking.
As a result, in 2019, Covenant Rescue Group (CRG) was born. CRG’s mission is to generate funds and use them strategically in the fight against human trafficking. This is done through the funding of training, gear, manpower and mobilization of law enforcement agencies both in the United States and internationally.
As President of Covenant Rescue Group, I can tell you that we get social media requests and emails all the time with someone asking for the opportunity to go on an operation with our guys. Typically, they want to go kick in doors. I have to explain that we are definitely NOT a vigilante group that busts into houses and hotels and drags traffickers and pedophiles out by their hair. We always work in conjunction with and under local law enforcement. Our goal is to provide these local agencies with whatever it is they need to combat the growing pandemic of human trafficking. Maybe that’s a specific type of training. Maybe that’s advising on how to set up sting operations. Maybe it’s some sort of gear that would make them better at their jobs, but they don’t have it in the budget to get it. That’s the space that CRG wants to fill. Especially in this era of “defund the police” rhetoric, it’s more important for us than ever to make sure these men and women have exactly what they need to be able to combat traffickers and rescue the oppressed.
To date, CRG has operated on three continents. Stateside operations have impacted 142 cities and led to over 50 arrests in sting operations. With multiple agencies trained across the country, the operations can be replicated over and over again leading to countless arrests. That’s the goal. We want to be able to fund training for agencies all over the country, so that long after the training is over, these agencies can continue to arrest bad guys.
To learn more about Covenant Rescue Group, visit www.covenantrescue.org or check them out on Facebook or Instagram.
Josh Moody is a Gardendale resident and President of Covenant Rescue Group. Josh is a contributing writer to The North Jefferson Herald. You can also contact Josh at [email protected].
