Welcome to The Grit Show!

Do you want to know the difference between trafficking and drugs in TV/movies and real life? In today’s episode, Jared Brown, recently retired Special Agent for Homeland Security, shares what it’s like on the inside. As he’s worked border patrol, focuses on terrorism investigations, and busted traffickers by going undercover on social media as a 13 year old girl, he has experienced things that a regular citizen couldn’t comprehend. In additional to sharing stories, Browne goes over the psychological toll that these experiences took on him, including how it affected his family and parenting styles.

Jared Browne retired in February 2023 after 26 years in federal law enforcement. He began his career in 1997 as a Border Patrol Agent on the southern border in AZ for 5 years. After 9/11 he became a Federal Air Marshal (FAM) assigned to the Denver, CO field office. He flew missions for 7 years then his last year as a FAM he was assigned to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in Salt Lake City, UT conducting terrorism investigations. In 2009 he became a Special Agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and served in the Salt Lake City and Provo offices.

During his 13 years with HSI he worked a wide variety of cases but specialized in Child Exploitation and Sex Trafficking investigations. For a 15-month period he was the case agent and primary online undercover agent (UC) for Operation Millstone where he posed online as a 13 year old girl. This was the most successful UC chat case in the county. During those 15 months he arrested 70 child predators and had a 100% conviction rate on his chat cases. He spent the last few years of his career focusing on sex trafficking investigations. 

Jared holds a Master’s degree in Emergency and Disaster Management and is also an Adjunct Professor for multiple Universities. For the last 13 years he has taught online undergraduate courses on the topics of Homeland Security, Terrorism, Criminal Justice, and Emergency Management. Jared has been married to his wonderful wife Nicole for 25 years and they have three sons, two who are adults and one teenager who still lives at home. Jared is an avid cyclist and rode in 65 of the 101 rides during the Conquer100, including day 1, and the last 20 days straight.

You can find his Instagram here: https://instagram.com/jaredbrowne74?igshid=ZWQyN2ExYTkwZQ==https://instagram.com/jaredbrowne74?igshid=ZWQyN2ExYTkwZQ==

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