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courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-wells-fargo-heist-0527-20100526,0,1510715.story<br>
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</font><h2><b>Machetero Gets 7 Years For 1983 Wells Fargo
Robbery</b></h2><font size=3>By ALAINE GRIFFIN,
<a href="mailto:agriffin@courant.com">agriffin@courant.com</a><br><br>
The Hartford Courant<br><br>
3:40 PM EDT, May 26, 2010<br><br>
HARTFORD <br><br>
A conspirator in the 1983 heist of $7.1 million from a Wells Fargo depot
in West Hartford was sentenced in federal court Wednesday afternoon to
seven years in prison and ordered to pay back the money.<br><br>
Avelino Gonzalez-Claudio pleaded guilty in February to conspiring to rob
the Wells Fargo terminal on Sept. 12, 1983, and to transporting the money
to Mexico.<br><br>
In sentencing Gonzalez-Claudio, Judge Alfred V. Covello told him,
"Wells Fargo is without $7 million, and you just can't walk away
from that."<br><br>
Gonzalez-Claudio was a key figure in Los Macheteros, a clandestine group
that advocates the use of violence to win Puerto Rico's independence from
the United States. The group intended to use the money to finance a war
against federal interests on the island and to support leftist
insurgencies elsewhere in Latin America, according documents seized by
authorities and other evidence.<br><br>
Gonzalez-Claudio disappeared after being indicted as a conspirator in the
Wells Fargo heist and was a fugitive for 22 years until his capture in
Puerto Rico by the FBI in February 2008. He was apprehended while driving
through a north coast town.<br><br>
According to the sentencing memorandum, while federal prosecutors do not
believe Gonzalez-Claudio is physically able to take part in future
violent crimes, they are concerned that after his release from prison he
would continue his association and involvement with Los Macheteros.
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