CNN reporter Patrick Oppmann claims to have located and talked to suspect Joshua Hakken at a Havana marina.
Joshua Hakken is the father who abducted his abducting his 4-year-old Cole and 2-year-old Chase, as reported by the Huffington Post. Hakken would not answer answer any specific questions, and Cuban security reportedly told Oppmann to promptly leave, before he reportedly saw a child on Hakken's boat, as well as a woman matching the description of Hakken's wife, CNN reporter Oppmann said.
Authorities allege that Hakken entered his mother-in-law's home in Tampa, Florida on Wednesday, before tying her up and then fled with the children in her silver 2009 Toyota Camry. That vehicle was found later that day just a couple of blocks away from the home, investigators said.
Those investigators also told CNN they believe Hakken joined up with his wife, who was waiting in their pickup truck, and the family drove to a parking garage. A short time later, they reportedly took a sailboat out of a private slip in nearby Madeira Beach. The boys had been living with their grandmother since last year after Hakken lost custody of them due to drug possession charges, CNN reported. Police say he tried to abduct them before and took them from a foster home at gunpoint.
The U.S. Interest Section in Havana "is aware of this case and is in contact with local authorities to get more information," a State Department official in Washington told CNN Tuesday. The official would not comment further, citing "privacy considerations."
"Unfortunately, these parents and these poor children, these innocent ones, will now be in a country where there are no laws, there is no redress, and that has been a refuge for fugitives and wanted criminals for many years," Florida Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen told CNN.
The boys had been removed from the care of the Hakkens, last year, and on April 2, the couple's parental rights were terminated in Louisiana, investigators told the press The most recent abduction report triggered an Amber Alert for the children, but there were no reported sightings until Tuesday.
Josh Hakken has been described as an armed "anti-government" protester, the Hillsborough County sheriff's office in Tampa said last week.
There is no extradition treaty between Cuba and the United States, although there have been recent cases in which Americans sought for crimes in the United States, and once discovered in Havana have been sent back by the Cubans.
The FBI currently estimates there are around 70 fugitives from U.S. justice in Cuba. Most of the American fugitives in Cuba have been there for decades and have ties to revolutionary movements or radical groups, CNN reported.
