Bleary eyed but alert and anxious to get started, the team filed back into the conference room. Each had only managed a couple of hours sleep but some was better than none. Hotch looked dead on his feet but determined. Already in the room besides Hotch were two other people, one of which was Chief Morris.
Everyone took a seat and Hotch looked to his team. "I have spoken at length with Strauss and Chief Morris. Although profiling is not essential to this case, we will remain involved in the investigation so long as we can remain objective. If any of you feel that you will be unable to do so, Strauss has granted you leave to remain in Boston for the length of the investigation." He looked around the table, meeting the eye of each of his agents in turn.
They all nodded back to him. They were all lying, but so long as they could at least present a decent façade of objectivity then that was good enough for him. After all, that was exactly what he was doing. Satisfied, he turned to the man stood next to Chief Morris. "This is SSA Santiago. He's running point on the Ghost Traders operation in Boston."
Santiago stepped forward. "Glad to have you all on board. First off I should give you some background. The Ghost Traders or prizrak treydery, is a massive criminal organization operating up and down the East Coast. They call their leaders 'Lieutenants'. There are three for each major East Coast city; Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. They've got their fingers in every criminal pie you can think of. Drugs trafficking, sex trafficking, murder for hire, arms dealing. You name it, they're into it. More than that, they control it. No dealer or gang makes a move without their knowledge or approval."
"The oligarchs of the criminal underworld." Murmured Rossi.
Santiago nodded. "Exactly."
"How long have you been investigating these 'Ghost Traders'?" asked Blake.
"About 5 years now, although we've now learned that a number of earlier investigations into other areas of organized crime were stumbling around the edges. We just didn't know it at the time."
"Five years and you don't have enough to take them down? What's going wrong?" Prentiss asked bluntly.
Santiago bristled visibly at her question but answered smoothly. "Not enough solid evidence. Witnesses are too afraid to come forward or, if they did, were silenced one way or another. The Lieutenants are an undercover no fly zone-"
"How so?"
"The last man we put in was under for almost a year; he worked his way up through one of the drug rings in Washington across into one of the Lieutenants' base of operations and gathering any intelligence he could along the way. Evidence he collected was passed along via a dead-drop, Cold War style, but six months ago he set up a meet with his handler."
"What happened?" asked Hotch.
"We found the handler's body the morning after the meet was due to take place, with a bullet through his forehead."
"The undercover flipped?"
"Jason. His name was Jason Bishop, and no. Jason was a good man. Perhaps too good… We didn't find what was left of his body until the following week."
Hotch bowed his head slightly. "I'm sorry."
Reid appeared to be becoming more and more agitated. "Santiago, I'm sorry for the loss of your friend. Really, I am, but I don't understand what this has to do with our case or JJ. If these Lieutenants are so powerful, you must know where they're hiding out. Where do they run their organization from? I don't understand how you could know the location of a missing agent and do nothing about it."
