Puerto Rican fugitive arrested 25 years after $7 million bank robbery

[News_Editor]

Puerto Rican fugitive arrested 25 years after $7 million bank robbery

2011-05-11 19:46:05 GMT+7 (ICT)

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO (BNO NEWS) -- A Puerto Rican man was arrested by federal agents, 25 years after robbing $7 million from a Wells Fargo Depot in Connecticut, officials said on Wednesday.

Norberto Gonzalez-Claudio, 65, allegedly participated in the September 12, 1983 armed robbery of the Wells Fargo Depot in Hartford, Connecticut in which $7 million were taken.

According to the FBI, Gonzalez-Claudio is believed to be a member of the clandestine domestic terrorist organization known as Ejercito Popular Boricua-Los Macheteros, a group which has claimed responsibility for several murders, armed robberies, and terrorist bombings.

On Tuesday morning, at around 10:30 a.m. local time, FBI agents arrested Gonzalez-Claudio in Cayey, Puerto Rico, 25 years after a federal arrest warrant was released for him, almost two years after an arrest warrant was released for on August 23, 1985 for the Wells Fargo incident. That year, 14 of the 16 suspects were arrested, all supposed members of Los Macheteros terrorist group.

The arrest warrant was based on obstruction of commerce by robbery and conspiracy. If convicted on these charges, Gonzalez-Claudio would face up to approximately 275 years of imprisonment.

However, less tan one year later, on March 21, 1986, another federal arrest warrant was issued in New Haven, Connecticut charging Gonzalez-Claudio with bank robbery, aggravated robbery, theft from interstate shipment, foreign and interstate transportation of stolen money, and conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery.

One person suspected of participating in the bank robbery, which marks one of the U.S.' largest, remains at large. Manuel Gerena is currently on the FBI's top ten most wanted and is thought to be in Cuba.

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