"From what Nell and I can tell, this is a child abduction by order ring."
"The one thing about these guys is that they are very organized. They have kept meticulous records. Every child they have taken has a file that lists everything. The child's name, their biological parent's names and address, the name and address of the individual who bought them and how much they were sold for." Nell added.
"Are the addresses of the biological parents the same addresses you located on the program that was hidden in the security company's system?" Callen asked.
"I've just began comparing them, and so far yes." Nell replied.
"Okay, when you have finished that run the names and addresses of the adopted parents and see if they are real. If they are we may be able to locate these children and return them to their families."
"Mr. Deeks, Miss Blye I am sending MP`s to the hospital to relieve you. When they arrive, I want the two of you to return here. I believe Mr. Beale and Miss Jones will require extra help. We may have to organize a recovery mission." Hetty said.
The next three hours were a whirlwind of activity. Five minutes after the team's conference call ended the hot dog vendor shut down his cart and he and the Night Guard hocked it onto the back of the blue van and drove off. Twenty minutes later Callen and Sam, with the help of the LAPD undercover cops that were on stake out duty, arrested both suspects as they entered locker number 47 at the storage facility. The suspects were interrogated, at the scene by Sam and Callen, but were not co-operative. They were hoping to discover the location of the exchange between Cassie's kidnappers and her buyers. In the end, Eric found the information in the downloaded files. Callen went in place of the hot dog vender, met with the gentleman and made the arrest with Sam as backup. By 6:00 all three suspects were handed over to the MP's and taken to a military facility to be formally charged.
Sam's theory concerning why the suspects had gone to such lengths to obtain their aliases was not that far off. The RCMP, in Canada, identified the hot dog vendor, from his finger prints as Donald John Wayland. There was a nation wide warrant for his arrest, in Canada, for the possession of child pornography. When the RCMP was told the initial charges against him in the US, they were not that interested in trying to have him returned to Canada. The sentence he would receive, for his crimes in the US, would far out way what he would receive for his crimes in Canada. He had obtained the alias to hide his true identity in order to enter the US as a citizen. The real identity of the Night Guard was still not known, but everyone knew it was only a matter of time before it would be discovered. The theory was that he had not only obtained the alias in order to enter the US as a citizen, but to be able to obtain the job at the security company. They would have required him to pass a police check before hiring him.
Eric and Nell's research into the records from the downloaded files proved not to be an exercise in futility. With the co-operation of the LA police chief and Detective Martin, Cassie's recovery was kept quiet. As far as the LAPD and the press knew, Cassie was still missing. Hetty had contacted Director Vance and the head of the FBI. The age of the victims involved created an air of urgency with everyone. It was decided to recover all the children in one massive movement. Catch everyone off guard, suspects would not have the opportunity to pick up and run. It was a major undertaking that usually took weeks of planning. They were going to do it within a matter of hours. The names of the missing children and the addresses of where they were believed to be living were forwarded electronically to the FBI's head office in Washington. If there was a FBI field office in the region, where a child was believed to be, agents were sent to take the child into custody and to arrest all suspects. In area's where there wasn't a field office local police departments were contacted to retrieve the child and arrest the suspects. By 7:30 pm LA time reports were coming in from field offices, and police stations from all over the country. In the end 64 children were recovered including Cassie.
FBI agents were sent to the homes of biological parents to notify them that their child had been recovered. A national missing children organization was contacted by the FBI to aid in reuniting families. Both the victims and their families were going to require services this organization provided.
A joint statement was released by NCIS, the FBI and the LAPD. It simply stated that NCIS while investigating an unrelated case had come across some evidence involving an unknown child abduction ring. The information was forwarded to the FBI to review. From the evidence the locations of 64 missing children were obtained. LAPD was contacted as it appeared that Cassandra Coverman was the ring's latest victim. Her whereabouts was disclosed when a suspect in the LA area was arrested.
It should have been an evening of rejoicing. They had rescued 64 children. Director Vance had personally congratulated them on there exceptional investigation skills. Normally paper work would have been filled out and then the team would have gone out to celebrate. This night though, no one felt like celebrating. The FBI had made the NCIS privy to all evidence they located at every recovery site even though NCIS would only be prosecuting the Cassandra Coverman case. The team as a whole could handle most situations. They were a team, and they helped each other. This case though would prove to be very different.