[Ppnews] Avelino Gonzalez-Claudio Gets 7 Years For 1983 Wells Fargo Robbery

[Political Prisoner News]

courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-wells-fargo-heist-0527-20100526,0,1510715.story


Machetero Gets 7 Years For 1983 Wells Fargo Robbery

By ALAINE GRIFFIN, <mailto:agriffin at courant.com>agriffin at courant.com

The Hartford Courant

3:40 PM EDT, May 26, 2010

HARTFORD ­

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

Copyright © 2010, <http://www.courant.com/>The Hartford Courant




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