Getty/ICE Bill Camp (l), the actor who plays Vampiro, and (r) the real island sting.
Vampiro is one of the most colorful characters in the new movie “Sound of Freedom.” However, is he a real person? What is the true story?
Stop reading if you do not want to get some spoilers for the movie, which is based on the work of real-life former Homeland Security Agent Tim Ballard. The movie, which has drawn criticism in some corners, stars actor Jim Caviezel and showcases Ballard’s efforts to combat child sex trafficking, culminating in a sting in Colombia to locate one trafficked girl.
Vampiro’s character was based on a real person, but all of the details attributed to him in the movie are not, according to Operation Underground Railroad, which is Ballard’s non-profit organization.
In the movie, the character of Vampiro is a former money launderer for the notorious Cali drug cartel, who went to prison, got out, and decided to devote his life to rescuing children from sex trafficking networks after an encounter with a juvenile prostitute he initially thought was an adult but then learned had been trafficked.
Here’s what you need to know:
In Real Life, Vampiro Never Went to Prison & the Story of the Prostitute Unfolded Differently
ICEA photo showing the scene where the sting took place in real life.
According to the O.U.R. website, the character of “Vampiro,” also known as “Batman,” “is based on a real person,” the website says. Actor Bill Camp plays the character in the movie, according to Screen Rant.
Everything said about Vampiro “when he is being introduced to Tim in the film is true, except when it says he spent time in jail. The real Batman has never been to prison,” it adds.
The website explains:
In the film, Batman tells Tim he changed his life and started helping in the fight against sex trafficking because he slept with a prostitute and then realized it was a 14-year-old girl. The realization that he was adding to the darkness almost drove him to suicide until God intervened and he redirected his efforts. This is true, except for the part where he says he slept with a 14-year-old girl. In real life, the woman he slept with was an adult trafficking victim, and he realized that her young daughter was being exploited while she was away, which was what drove him to join the fight.
Batman was involved with Operation Triple Take, but he did not actually participate in the Cartagena Operation, as depicted in the movie. On that same day, he was actually leading one of the other Operation Triple Take undertakings in Medellín, Colombia.
Some of the Other characters & Scenes Featured in ‘Sound of Freedom’ Are Also Based on Real People & Events
YouTube (Juanes)/ICEKelly Johana Suarez (r) in a music video and (l) the scene of the island sting in real life.
Operation Triple Take was the real-life sting that is fictionalized on a Colombian island in the movie, the O.U.R. website says. As with Vampiro, the beauty queen turned sex trafficker character named Giselle is loosely based on a real person, the website says. Read more about her here.
According to O.U.R.:
In the movie, it shows a raid on an island to rescue children from a large trafficking ring. In real life, this was one of three coordinated takedowns that happened that day in Colombia, conducted by O.U.R. in conjunction with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). In total, 123 survivors were rescued, 55 of which were minors. Known as “Operation Triple Take,” it remains O.U.R.’s largest undertaking to date. In “Sound of Freedom” it depicts the takedown that happened just outside of Cartagena, where roughly 50 victims were rescued. In the movie, all of the survivors are children, but in real life not all of them were minors.
The Cali cartel that the character Vampiro was associated with in the movie was real. In fact, the fictionalized series “Narcos” was based on it for season three.
“The Cali combine produces 70% of the coke reaching the U.S. today, according to the DEA, and 90% of the drug sold in Europe. The Cali godfathers have a virtual lock on the global wholesale market in the most lucrative commodity ever conceived by organized crime. The cartel is the best and brightest of the modern underworld: professional, intelligent, efficient, imaginative and nearly impenetrable,” reported Time Magazine in 2001.
“Colombian drug lords Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, 63, and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, 67, entered guilty pleas and were ushered to federal prison for the next 30 years,” reported The Seattle Times in 2007.
READ NEXT: The Real Story of Tim Ballard.