The father of a missing Hazleton boy who was located on a South Pacific island last week has been returned to the United States, an FBI spokeswoman said Monday. 
 
 Jeffrey Hanson, 46, arrived back in the country in the custody of members of the FBI’s Seattle Safe Streets Task Force, Ayn Dietrich-Williams, media coordinator, FBI Seattle Division, said. 
 
 Hanson was scheduled to make a court appearance in Los Angeles Monday afternoon in connection with the September disappearance of his son, Billy Hanson, 9, of Hazleton. 
 
 Jeffrey Hanson faces a charge of international parental kidnapping. 
 
 “The FBI continues to work with the Department of Justice and Department of State to reunite nine-year-old Billy Hanson with his mother,” Dietrich-Williams said. 
 
 Found on Niue 
 
 Father and son were found on the island of Niue, about 1,500 miles northeast of New Zealand, last week. 
 
 A federal arrest warrant had been issued for Jeffrey Hanson on Sept. 12 in Seattle, Washington. 
 
 According to a criminal complaint that preceded the warrant, Billy had been visiting with his father, staying on the man’s boat at the Shilshole Bay Marina in Seattle. Billy was supposed to be returned to his mother, Joanna Hanson, in Hazleton, on Sept. 4 but never boarded the flight home. 
 
 Jeffrey Hanson and Joanna Hanson are divorced, and a court order gave Jeffrey Hanson monthly visitation rights for up to six consecutive days. The order also stipulated that after the child reached the age of 9, “the father may travel domestically or internationally for up to one year exclusively with the child,” according to the criminal complaint. 
 
 Joanna Hanson told the FBI she had received several phone calls and text messages from her ex-husband that led her to believe Jeffrey Hanson did not intend to return their son to her custody. They last spoke on Aug. 30, the complaint states. 
 
 Substance abuse? 
 
 Joanna Hanson told the FBI on Sept. 10 that her ex-husband has a history of alcohol abuse and getting into fights, that his friends had told her that he was using methamphetamine, and that she feared he may harm their son if law enforcement got involved. 
 
 On Sept. 11, the FBI interviewed several of Jeffrey Hanson’s friends or former friends, who described him as mentally unstable and some of whom reported that he had been smoking meth, taking oxycontin and drinking alcohol. 
 
 Carey Jambresic told the FBI that Billy Hanson had visited his father every summer in Washington state for the last five years, and that Jeffrey would abuse Billy physically and emotionally on those visits, which would include hitting Billy in an attempt to “toughen” him. 
 
 Heidi Howard, who knew Jeffrey Hanson since high school, told the FBI he began in August to mail her random photos from when they were in high school, and that she received a package in the mail from him on Aug. 28 that contained a book, a bow tie and pictures. She said she believed he was “parceling out his property,” which she said was indicative of someone who is going to commit suicide. 
 
 Howard received a mailing from Hanson on Sept. 8. On the outside of the envelope, which she didn’t open until Sept. 12, was written: “Hanson the blond headed Manson.” The return address on the envelope was: “The little red boat in the ocean.” 
 
 Inside the envelope, Howard found a letter that in part read: “My poor little ex espossa Joanna Hanson will be the victim y a reminder to the rest you know where the bodies are crab food.” 
 
 A security officer for Bank of America told the FBI Jeffrey Hanson had drawn down his bank accounts to near zero balances on Aug. 18. 
 
 The marina dock captain told the FBI that Jeffrey Hanson recently told him he planned to head south, and that Hanson was preparing extra storage in the boat. 
 
 Arrest described 
 
 According to Dietrich-Williams, the Niue Police Department arrested Hanson on Oct. 29, at his 38-foot sailboat Draco, which was illegally docked on Niue shores after Hanson allegedly failed to seek admittance through Niue immigration and customs officials. 
 
 “The Niue police knew of the warrant for Hanson’s arrest after the FBI’s Legal Attaché office in Canberra, Australia, passed the missing person and wanted fliers to the Pacific Transnational Crime Coordination Center (PTCCC), a multi-national law enforcement network, in which the Niue Police Department is a member,” Dietrich-Williams wrote. 
 
 “Niue police publicized the search for Hanson in the country and alert members of the public provided the crucial tip that led authorities to Billy and Jeffrey Hanson,” she added. 
 
 Roger DuPuis may be reached at 570-991-6113 or on Twitter @rogerdupuis2. ||||| As a result of coordinated, international law enforcement efforts, Jeffrey Hanson, 46, yesterday arrived in the United States, in the custody of members of the FBI’s Seattle Safe Streets Task Force. At 2:00 p.m. today, Hanson will make his first appearance in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, California, to face a charge of international parental kidnapping. The FBI continues to work with the Department of Justice and Department of State to reunite 9-year-old Billy Hanson with his mother. 
 
 The Niue Police Department arrested Hanson on Wednesday, October 29, on his sailboat Draco, which was docked on Niue shores in violation of Niue immigration and customs laws by not having sought proper admittance through Niue immigration and customs officials. The Niue police knew of the warrant for Hanson’s arrest after the FBI’s legal attaché office in Canberra, Australia, passed the missing person and wanted fliers to the Pacific Transnational Crime Coordination Center (PTCCC), a multi-national law enforcement network, in which the Niue Police Department is a member. Niue police publicized the search for Hanson in the country and alert members of the public provided the crucial tip that led authorities to Billy and Jeffrey Hanson. 
 
 “We are grateful to law enforcement authorities in Niue for their exceptional efforts in finding Billy Hanson and taking Jeffrey Hanson in to custody,” said Special Agent in Charge Frank Montoya, Jr. of the FBI’s Seattle Field Office. “Their actions underscore the value of the FBI’s partnerships around the world. These partnerships allow us to work effectively to uphold the rule of law and ensure justice is served.” 
 
 The FBI asked for the assistance of FBI offices down the West Coast, in Hawaii and Alaska, and in Mexico and Australia in spreading the word of the search widely, including locations where investigators had information suggesting Jeffrey Hanson had previously traveled. 
 
 The investigation was led jointly by the FBI’s Seattle Safe Streets Task Force (SSSTF), whose many task force officers include members of the Seattle Police Department Major Crimes Task Force. The Hazleton Police Department, the FBI’s Philadelphia and Los Angeles Field Offices, the Port of Seattle Police Department, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children collaborated on the investigation from the beginning. The FBI also values the tremendous assistance of the New Zealand Police, New Zealand Customs Service, and Immigration New Zealand. ||||| November 3, 2014 at 1:32 PM 
 
 A man charged with kidnapping his son and taking him from Seattle to a South Pacific island is back on U.S. soil, the FBI said Monday. 
 
 Jeffrey Hanson, 46, was brought to the U.S. Sunday by members of the FBI’s Seattle Safe Streets Task Force. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday afternoon on a charge of international parental kidnapping in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, according to the FBI. 
 
 Hanson and his son, Billy Hanson, 9, were found Wednesday in Niue, an island in the South Pacific. 
 
 Billy had been staying with his father in Shilshole Bay Marina in Seattle. The boy was due to be returned to his mother in Pennsylvania on Sept. 4, but Billy never boarded his flight home, the FBI said. 
 
 A federal arrest warrant was issued for Hanson on Sept. 12 after he was charged with international parental kidnapping. 
 
 The FBI and the Seattle Police Department worked with local, state, federal and international agencies to locate Billy in Niue, a small island east of Tonga in the South Pacific. 
 
 “We are grateful to law enforcement authorities in Niue for their exceptional efforts in finding Billy Hanson and taking Jeffrey Hanson into custody,” Special Agent-in-Charge Frank Montoya Jr. of the FBI’s Seattle field office said in a news release. ||||| An American accused of kidnapping his son has been found with the boy on Niue, a tiny island in the South Pacific, 5,500 miles from home. 
 
 Nine-year-old Billy Hanson, of Seattle, was reported missing by his mother in September when he failed to return from a visit to his father. An international search was launched, with authorities focusing on finding a yacht belonging to Jeffrey Hanson, a skilled sailor with experience voyaging around Mexico and the South Pacific. 
 
 Investigators tracked down the pair to Niue, a coral atoll known by its 1,600 inhabitants as The Rock, 1,500 miles north-east of New Zealand. 
 
 Members of the island’s 15-member police force arrested Jeffrey Hanson on 29 October, the FBI said, adding that he had since been deported to the US where he would be charged with international parental kidnapping. 
 
 While Jeffrey Hanson left Niue last week with a police escort, his son remained on the island for a further four days while arrangements were made for him to return to his mother. 
 
 The editor of the Niue Star newspaper said locals had rallied around to look after the boy, who seemed to be treating his time in the South Pacific as an adventure. “I saw him at a barbecue on Friday and he did not look stressed,” Michael Jackson said. “He had a Niue T-shirt on and was enjoying himself.” 
 
 He said the child had become something of a celebrity during his time on the island. “When I was at the petrol station he came past and people were whispering: ‘There’s the boy who was kidnapped’,” Jackson said. “It’s all been quite exciting for us.”
– A 9-year-old boy reported missing in September has been found safe—on a tiny South Pacific island more than 7,000 miles from his home in Pennsylvania. Billy Hanson's mom reported the boy missing after he didn't come back from a visit with his father in Seattle, so authorities focused on finding the yacht belonging to Jeffrey Hanson, an experienced sailor who's traveled around the South Pacific and Mexico. An international search ultimately located father and son on Niue, a coral atoll 1,500 miles northeast of New Zealand and 5,500 miles away from Seattle, the Guardian reports. The 46-year-old Hanson was arrested by the island's 15-member police force last Wednesday after a tip from a local who recognized him from a wanted poster, and he was brought back to the US Sunday to face charges of international parental kidnapping, the Seattle Times reports. Billy had been staying on the 38-foot sailboat at Seattle's Shilshole Bay Marina with his dad. The US Attorney's Office says Jeffrey Hanson is a "known drug abuser." He and Joanna Hanson are divorced, and Jeffrey had monthly visitation rights, the Times Leader reports. Billy had gone on summer visits for the past five years, and one of Jeffrey Hanson's friends told the FBI the man would abuse his son on those visits, including hitting him to "toughen" him up. As for Billy, he stayed on the island for a few days while authorities arranged to return him to his mother, and according to the editor of the Niue Star newspaper, he seemed none the worse for wear. "I saw him at a barbecue on Friday and he did not look stressed," the editor says, adding that locals were looking after him and the 9-year-old seemed to be treating the whole thing as an adventure. "He had a Niue T-shirt on and was enjoying himself." It's not clear where the boy is now; the FBI said Monday that authorities were still working to reunite him with his mom. (A New Hampshire girl was recently found after being missing for nine months.)