1983 жылғы Уэст-Хартфорд қарыстыруы: «Ақ Илбике» операциясы

1983 robbery in West Hartford, Connecticut, US
Águila Blanca (named after José Maldonado Román and meaning "White Eagle" in English) was the name given by Los Macheteros (a guerrilla group seeking Puerto Rican independence from the United States) to its robbery of a Wells Fargo depot on September 12, 1983, a day coinciding with the birth date of Puerto Rican Nationalist Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos. The robbery took place in West Hartford, Connecticut, and netted more than $7 million ($7.0 in 1983 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years million today). At the time of the robbery, it was the largest cash heist in U. S. history. The specific cell responsible for it was known as Los Taínos. According to the Macheteros, part of the money was given to the poor communities of Puerto Rico to fund education, food, housing, clothing and toys for children. The FBI charges for this robbery include obstruction of commerce by robbery and conspiracy, bank robbery, aggravated robbery, theft from interstate shipment, foreign and interstate transportation of stolen money, and conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery.

Wells Fargo used to store large amounts of money in its depot at Culbro Industrial Park in West Hartford, exploiting a lack of public awareness about it and the city's industrial nature to keep as much as $30 million at the site. The corporation employed individuals at minimum wage, hoping to offset losses caused by an increase in competition. However, this mostly attracted employees with little to no experience. This lack of experience manifested itself in his management of the delivery routes and assets, where he granted liberty beyond the rule book to his subordinates for the sake of completing the task with the resources available. McKeon employed 25 year old Víctor Manuel Gerena as his second in command, with both starting their employment with the company with only a month of difference. On August 29, 1983, he rented a Malibu at a non credit locale named Ugly Duckling Rent A Car and brought it to the Wells Fargo depot as a test to see if McKeon's laxity would allow it to be parked inside the delivery van area adjacent to the vault. He claimed that it was borrowed from a friend who would be mad if it was damaged by vandals and thieves who frequented the area. Having accomplished this goal, Gerena completed his schedule as usual and finished the work day without incident. However, McKeon dropped Sheowkis in the return trip and drove the loaded van to the depot by himself. Once Gerena's van arrived, Girard moved his car out of bay four, leaving only Gerena's car and the Wells Fargo vans inside. The plan suffered another setback when Girard stayed behind instead of leaving as usual after this task was completed, unable to reach his house due to construction. Girard dropped to the floor while McKeon placed his hands behind his back and was handcuffed. Gerena apologized for the assault and moved the manager away from the vault door, systematically selecting which money to remove from it, leaving behind coins and most uncirculated currency. Girard and McKeon noted that he removed the car's backup wheel and made several trips with a cart that he would use to move the money from the vault to it, until $7,017,152 were loaded. Gerena concluded by loading another gun and a shot gun, then honking the horn of the car to what is believed to have been a signal to another individual and then left the premises. McKeon and Girard struggled to release their bonds afterwards, but by the time that they managed to contact the police, officers Jack Casey, Jack Bannan, and George Mucha were outside the compound waiting for the security measures to be dropped. The police, however, were skeptical when they were told that at least five million dollars were taken from the vault and assumed that the case was easy since the identity of the perpetrator was known, instead focusing on securing the crime scene. Meanwhile, Gerena met associates working for the EPB near a motel, handing over the money and his identification. From here, both parties went in different directions, with the other Macheteros heading to Boston and dropping his identification along the way. His brother, ex wife and an ex girlfriend was also interrogated to no avail. All of these measures failed, and the police were unable to pinpoint Gerena's location. They lost track of his plausible locations by finding the car, which was later found parked outside a motel, and the knowledge of the locale that leased it. Jim Millan, an FBI agent that worked on bank robberies, was placed in charge of the search for Gerena. Despite receiving media attention at the behest of attorney John Bailey, the recovery of the vehicle failed to provide notable clues. The only piece of evidence found was the revolver and shotgun that Gerena had used during the heist. With the police's morale being affected by a number of false leads and media hype, they interviewed individuals who claimed to have relationships with Gerena, only to later admit that they lied. Attempts were made to recover the samples taken from McKeon at Hartford Hospital, but they had disappeared. The time lapsed between the time that Gerena injected them and the tests performed on Girard and their limited spectrum failed to turn any known drug. The heist was the largest single handed in American history and the second largest in total. Gerena's image instantly gathered him popularity by reflecting a hit of the middle class' frustrations with the establishment, with his photo even being exhibited in a store. There was a general perception that the heist had taken "bank money, not people money", which was reinforced by their own frustrations with the corporate economy. Even among the policemen assigned to track him down, he managed to muster a form of respect due to his boldness. Hartford police chief Frank Reynolds and FBI state chief Lon Lacey held a reunion to discuss the future of the search, with the first requesting to host the headquarters for the nationwide investigation in an effort to remain relevant to the case. A limited cooperation with the upper echelons of the Hartford PD was agreed, but the FBI retained all real jurisdiction of the case. The copies left behind at Hartford would later allow the press the insights into the case. Her attorney, Michael Graham, quickly took the matter public and threatened with taking legal action if the interrogatories continued and eventually municipal attorneys intervened. Unable to continue this line of inquiry, the interviews turned to those close to her, with the police discovering that she was a supporter of Puerto Rican independence from an employer that felt that she had once wore a shirt that was "un American". No negative testimony came from those interviewed and the police concluded that he was most likely influenced by desperation brought forth by debt. Millan and Duffy put pressure on César Carmona, an old friend of Gerena and godfather to one of his daughters, who insisted that Gerena would only do something like this for the benefit of a cause that he considered worthy, and let them know that Gerena strongly supported Puerto Rican independence. Further into the interrogation, he noted that Gerena had asked for his pickup truck the night before the heist but had been refused. This alarmed the authorities, who mistrusted Carmona due to a past of arrests related to political activism and requested a polygraph test which was negative. In October, with no further leads, Millan and Duffy went to Carmona's house, only to be told to come back with a warrant. Months later, while Carmona was facing an unrelated legal case, Millan and Duffy tried to convince him to talk about Gerena in exchange for the charges being dropped.

On October 30, 1983, an anti tank rocket was fired against the Federal Building where Puerto Rico's FBI headquarters were at the time. The organization referred to this as "Operación La Guillotina" and despite claiming success publicly, its strategists were frustrated that due to a lack of vantage points the commandoes had been unable to target the FBI offices directly, the use of registered cars and a deviation from the planned escape route. The bureau spent $8 million in the investigation and tapped several vehicles, buildings and public telephones and recorded all adjacent activity. In November, Gerena defied the Hartford authorities by sending letters to his mother and girlfriend, apparently from Buffalo. After being deemed authentic, another unsuccessful search took place in the city. The FBI continued gathering information of the Macheteros that visited Ojeda, unaware that they were under surveillance and not yet noticing the activity in the neighborhood. José Rodríguez was placed in charge of the Puerto Rican investigation, while the bureau was experiencing problems piecing together the information due to the EPB's use of pseudonyms. There they tailed a total of three Macheteros in their meeting with another individual and to New Paltz, where they entered an RV. In April 1984, the Puerto Rico Police casually discovered an EPB safe house while investigating another crime scene, noticing an explosive artifact and a weapons cache. The EPB members held a reunion in Dorchester and discussed what to do with the RV, eventually leaving it at Boston, where the pursuing agents later seized it. On January 25, 1985, the EPB attacked the Federal Court Building with a bazooka, in protest to the presence of an American military recruit center within it. Following a threat of retaliation, the subpoenas issued to third parties were dropped.

The surveillance soon revealed that Gerena would take credit for the heist on behalf of the EPB in a press event to be held on September 24, 1984. Following the leak of FBI declarations in a 1982 hearing in apparent conjunction with the investigation, the bureau stopped its communication with the Hartford police. Ironically, the political angle was the most accurate but also the least popular among the rumors circling the case, but it linked Gerena with the FALN. In West Hartford, it was reported that an FBI agent leaked to the press that Gerena would be talking to the media on Labor Day, although the date was off the rumor proved accurate. One of then was sent to the Hartford Courant and addressed to one of its former correspondents, Mark Stillman, from where it was relayed to the local police, who certified that the hand writing was real. In it, Gerena congratulated Stillman and fellow reporter Dave Lesher for a story published half a year before, but also noted that their guest, crime author Jay Robert Nash, was only partially correct about his assumption that he had targeted Wells Fargo to get back at the system and get the "American Dream" and promised to clear the misconceptions in the future. In all of his letters, Gerena used a card that depicted a prominent American symbol with a double meaning intended, in particular the Statue of Liberty as a symbol for Puerto Rican independence. The use of sophisticated Spanish and a change in his signature fueled speculation about exactly when Gerena had joined the EPB. On October 19, 1984, an unidentified Machetero contacted a United Press International reporter in Puerto Rico directing her to a communiqué where the EPB took full responsibility for the heist, which was codenamed Pitirre III and considered one in a series of "military economic operative[s]" carried out by the group against Wells Fargo and by extension, the American economy. The group also explained the reason behind the date, the birthday of Pedro Albizu Campos, and clarified that Gerena had trained with them for more than a year before the event. The FBI became secretive through the year's end, virtually severing its communication with the police and media. Meanwhile, the EPB made attempts to contact the Hartford media through calls and postcards. However, the local second in command green lighted the event with the approval of Juan Segarra. Nevertheless, on January 6, 1985, three EPB commandos rented a van and gave presents to the children in the neighborhood where Gerena lived in West Hartford. An FBI agent participated in the give away and recorded everything that took place. Afterwards, he walked outside and allowed the agents to arrest him. There was also controversy over the procedures, in particular over a 10 year old being allowed to go to the bathroom only with an armed agent by his side and the seizing of useless evidence such as an unfinished novel, cultural recordings and children's cassettes. Several others were also charged, of which only Paul Weinberg was not accused as a member of the EPB, for a total of 19 defendants. The FBI presented 1,300 wiretap recordings that they considered evidence along surveillance photos and the material confiscated in the discovered safe house and the RV.

The preliminary hearing in the case took place overseen by judge Justo Arenas, with the families of the accused holding a vigil in protest outside. Feeling that most of the evidence was circumstantial and that the tales could be interpreted as political banter that could be interpreted accordingly by locals, the defense pushed to keep the trial in Puerto Rico, while the prosecution led by H. Manuel Hernández insisted in taking it abroad. Arenas opted to hold the removal hearing on September 1, 1985, with the prosecution requesting that the bail hearing was held in the preliminary hearing as well, but with the request was not granted. Feeling that it would hinder its case to hold the bail hearing in Connecticut, where the defendants were expected to be sent in a removal hearing, the defense instead opted to argue that they had not been able to meet their clients individually. A woman named Anne Gassin, with apparent ties to Segarra, was arrested and later offered a cooperation deal. The defense, led by William Kunstler and Bruce Rubenstein, argued that the use of that kind of security would only bias the community and media against the defendants and demanded to know why they were not allowed to talk with their clients. Egan allowed a Puerto Rican lawyer to remain in court and the defendants were allowed to choose their lawyers, all of whom chose Puerto Rican lawyers who adopted the political angle. During the bail hearing, some of the defendants were released on bail, with some being ordered to pay in secured funds. These measures kept them 22–23 hours a day in their cells, with no private visits being allowed between couples or children being allowed to visit. On September 23, 1985, the EPB published a communiqué praising the defendants as martyrs for their cause. In December 1985, nationalist paper Libertad warned the federal government that if the arrests continued they should "begin preparing their cemeteries also" because they intended to send federal agents (referred to as "mercenaries") back to them. The event marked the introduction of American activists to the case. One of the defense lawyers complained that his mail had been monitored, to the protest of the prosecution. On June 2, 1986, the defense requested for the case to move back to Puerto Rico, where the political motives would be understood and argued that the Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution offered a right to be tried in the district of offense and cited SCOTUS precedents of defendants being tried in their own community. Michael Deutsch brought in sociolinguist William Labov who exposed that due to low quality recording, only native Spanish speakers had been able to understand words in what recorded in the tapes during tests, and that even then there was no agreement about what was being said. Claire declined to move the case, citing that it revolved around a heist in Hartford and that the arguments would not involve Puerto Rican politics. The defense then moved to argue the suppression of government evidence due to procedural errors in its collection that included being sealed months after dictated by procedure. On October 21, 1986, the US Court of Appeals for the Second District argued that such a period of pre trial detention was unconstitutional. In 1999, he was one of the FALN members whose sentences were commuted by President Bill Clinton. Filiberto Ojeda Rios was sentenced in absentia to 55 years in prison. His lawyer stated that Ojeda jumped bail because he did not think he could get a fair trial. In a case that drew criticism from the government of Puerto Rico, Ojeda was shot and killed in a shootout when the FBI raided his hideout in Puerto Rico in 2005. In 2010, Avelino González Claudio was sentenced for his part in planning the robbery to seven years in prison and "ordered to pay back the money," according to The Hartford Courant. Victor Manuel Gerena is still at large and was listed as one of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives until April 11, 2010, when he became the fugitive to have spent the most time on the list. Roberto Maldonado Rivera was sentenced to five years in prison and fined $100,000. He had served his sentence and was released several years prior to Clinton's clemency offer.