Robber Busted 28 Years After Huge Bank Heist

Norberto Gonzalez Claudio spent decades on the run
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 11, 2011 8:19 AM CDT
Norberto Gonzalez Claudio Busted 28 Years After Huge Bank Heist
FBI authorities said they arrested Gonzalez Tuesday in the southern mountain town of Cayey, Puerto Rico.    (AP Photo/FBI)

A Puerto Rican militant has been arrested 28 years after he allegedly took part in one of the biggest bank robberies in American history. Norberto Gonzalez Claudio, 65, is accused of participating in the $7 million armed robbery of a Wells Fargo truck in Connecticut in 1983, AP reports. Claudio, who had been on the FBI's Most Wanted list for decades, offered no resistance when he was arrested strolling on a jogging track in a southern Puerto Rico town.

Claudio is a member of the militant Puerto Rican independence group Los Macheteros, and investigators believe that the $7 million stolen in the heist was used to finance bombings and attacks in their push for independence for the US territory. The special agent in charge of FBI operations in Puerto Rico says he believes Claudio was on the island the entire time that he was on the run and maintained an active role in the Macheteros' campaign for independence. (More bank robber stories.)

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