Orange County Children Kidnapped by Father Recovered and Returned to U.S. After Joint Operation by International and American Law Enforcement Officials

Through the cooperation of several international government and law enforcement agencies, three children that were kidnapped by their father earlier this year were recovered overseas and returned to the United States Wednesday, announced Steven Martinez, Assistant Director of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office and André Birotte Jr, the United States Attorney for the Central District of California.

The father of the victims, Michael Mobin Meskal, 45, is suspected of taking the children out of the country in violation of the parental rights of the victims' mother. Meskal, a Syrian citizen, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, with international parental kidnapping, a violation of Title 18, U.S.Code, Section 1204(a).

According to the complaint, the victims' mother, Natasha Meskal, discovered that her husband and children were missing upon her return from business travel in August 2010. Natasha Meskal later learned that her husband had taken her children to Syria without her permission. Natasha Meskal then traveled to Syria, where her children had been enrolled in school and was told that the defendant refused to return them to the United States, the complaint alleges.

On November 29, 2010, Natasha Meskal contacted detectives with the Fountain Valley Police Department to report that her husband had abducted her three children. Fountain Valley detectives initiated an investigation. When it had been determined that the children were taken overseas without the mother's consent, the FBI joined the investigation.

On December 9, 2010, Michael Meskal agreed to travel with his children to Croatia to meet with their mother. Natasha Meskal purchased plane tickets for her husband and three children to Zagreb, Croatia, and traveled there to meet them. The federal criminal complaint was filed and a federal arrest warrant issued on December 10, 2010.

Agents with the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office collaborated with FBI legal attaché offices, the State Department, and Interpol officials overseas in order to enlist the assistance of law enforcement authorities in Croatia in recovering the victim children and to arrest the defendant.

Based upon the local missing children reports and the federal arrest warrant, Interpol's National Central Bureau in Washington, D.C., issued three Missing Person Diffusions and one Wanted Person Diffusion directly to Interpol Croatia's Bureau in Zagreb.

When the defendant traveled with the children to Croatia on December 15, police officials in Croatia, based upon the Interpol diffusions, arrested the defendant and reunited the children with their mother.

After being successfully reunited with her children in Croatia, Natasha Meskal and her children returned to the United States late Wednesday afternoon.

Michael Meskal and Natasha Meskal are legally married and at the time of the abduction, there was no formal custody agreement between them. Natasha Meskal has since filed for divorce and an emergency order in California seeking full custody of her children.

The United States government will seek Meskal's extradition based on the pending federal charges. Meskal is currently being held by law enforcement authorities in Croatia.

The Regional Security Officer (RSO) in Zagreb was instrumental in coordinating the assistance of Croatian authorities and securing the return of the children to their mother.

The successful arrests and recovery of the children would not have been possible without the international cooperation of the following law enforcement agencies:

RSO at U.S. Embassy Zagreb for Legat Vienna

The FBI's Legal Attaché in Vienna, Austria

Croatian Police, Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia

The FBI's Legal Attaché in Budapest, Hungary

The FBI's Legal Attaché in Amman, Jordan

Fountain Valley Police Department

The FBI's Los Angeles Field Office

Interpol National Central Bureau - Washington, D.C.

Interpol - National Central Bureau, Zagreb, Croatia

The United States Attorney's Office, Central District of California

U.S. Department of Justice, Office of International Affairs

U.S. Department of State: Bureau of Consular Affairs, Office of Childrens' Issues

A criminal complaint contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in court.

814 Cops in 2007

December 30, 2007, 2007 (San Dimas, CA) Police-Writers.com is a website that lists state and local police officers who have written books. With the addition of three California police officers the website ended the year with 814 listings of police officers who have written books.

Robert Cole is a retired sergeant from the East Palo Alto Police Department (California) and the author of Under the Gun in Iraq.”

According to the book description of Under the Gun in Iraq, “Robert Cole - a retired California police officer hired by DynCorp as an international police trainer - presents a vivid account of the challenges of training the Iraqis to handle their own security. In blunt, everyday language, Robert Cole gives the reader an unusually candid and often hair-raising glimpse into reality at the street level as he and his colleagues navigate the dangerous sectors of Baghdad, Tikrit, and Kirkuk, dodging explosions and bullets aimed at them by young, Iraqi, wannabe heroes.”

Retired Chief Elvin G. Miali started his Law Enforcement career in 1967, with the City of San Gabriel in Los Angeles County. He began as a Patrolman, then he promoted to Detective, Detective Sergeant, Lieutenant Watch Commander, Lieutenant in charge of the Detective Bureau and finally Captain. In 1986 he was appointed Chief of Police of the
Fountain Valley Police Department (California). He was Police Chief for 17 years, prior to his retirement in 2003.

Chief Elvin G. Miali participated in many Oral Boards and Assessment Centers and observed how difficult it was for many officers to do well in the promotional process. For this reason he wrote the book entitled Unless You're The Lead Dog, The Scenery Never Changes. According to the book description, “He has developed various testing programs and will share with you the inside scoop into the testing process which is not available to everyone. He has assisted many of his officers with one-on-one consultations regarding the testing process. This type of information is coming from the "top" and
Chief Miali knows what the administrators of police agencies want from their candidates, because he was there and made those decisions.”

Joseph C. DeLadurantey was appointed Chief of Police for the City of Irwindale on August 1, 2001 and served until his retirement in 2005. He had served as the interim Chief for one month. Prior to his appointment he was the Law Enforcement Liaison for the District Attorney of Los Angeles County for four years. With over 40 years in law enforcement, he has served as the Chief of Police for the City of Torrance for 5 1/2 years and spent 27 years with the Los Angeles Police Department where he attained the rank of Captain. He retired from law enforcement at the end of 2005 and is currently a management consultant to the public sector.

He is an Associate Professor of Public Administration in the graduate school of Public Administration at Cal State Northridge, has published textbooks and articles for professional journals and lectures throughout the country on various topics. He is currently completing his dissertation and will be receiving a doctoral degree in Public Administration from the University of La Verne in 2007. He is the author of Homicide Investigations Standards Textbook and co-author of Criminal Investigation Standards.

Police-Writers.com now hosts 814 police officers (representing 367 police departments) and their 1726 law enforcement books in six categories, there are also listings of United States federal law enforcement employees turned authors, international police officers who have written books and civilian police personnel who have written books.

Police Books from Northern California

Police-Writers.com is a website that lists over 730 state and local police officers who have written books. Police-Writers.com added three law enforcement officials from Northern California law enforcement agencies to the website.

William DeNisi’s law enforcement career spanned over three decades and exposed him from every policing job from rookie to chief. Additionally, the retired Fountain Valley Police Department police captain worked a wide variety of assignments including narcotics, vice and homicide. William DeNisi is the author of Choking Sam and Trinity.

According to the book description of Choking Sam, “Choking Sam While global attention continues to be riveted on the Middle East, the North Koreans stumble upon the one thing that could instantly catapult their tiny country to world dominance. Their find is, literally, out of this world and its chilling potential for energy and weaponry far eclipses mere nuclear fission. The Koreans struggle to develop their secret and keep their people in line. Serial murder, deep sea exploration, international intrigue and enemy secret agents operating in the Southern California shadow of mouseville coalesce to provide another roller-coaster adventure for Orange County Sheriff's Detective Mike Sullivan and his sidekick, Charlie Gomez.”

Scott Morrison is a former detective with the Fresno County Sheriff's Department who served in the homicide, sex crimes, and intelligence units. He is the author of Murder in the Garden: Famous Crimes of Early Fresno County.

According to the book description of Murder in the Garden: Famous Crimes of Early Fresno County “Presenting 15 famous cases from Fresno, California, set in the first part of the 20th century, a long-time detective in the sheriff's office introduces key figures such as a bootlegger, an unfortunate local dubbed Alligator Jack, and a perpetrator known as the Fig Garden Fiend. Featuring local landmarks such as Mussel Slough—the setting for Frank Norris's The Octopus—and offering additional commentary that compares these sensational past cases to current high-profile criminal cases. A consideration of the changing face of crime, this history reveals a modern upswing in child abuse, multiple murders, and kidnapping cases and highlights the extended nature of the current legal process as compared to the open-and-shut character of the early 1900s.”

O.R. Shipley is the former chief of police of the Eureka Police Department (California). He is also the author of the Police Policy Manual.

Police-Writers.com now hosts 735 police officers (representing 342 police departments) and their 1572 police books in six categories, there are also listings of United States federal law enforcement employees turned authors, international police officers who have written books and civilian police personnel who have written books.