Wells Fargo Fugitive Captured

The FBI Thursday captured a member of the militant Puerto Rico independence group Los Macheteros who disappeared 22 years ago after being charged in a $7 million West Hartford robbery that was then the largest cash heist in U.S. history.

Avelino Gonzalez Claudio, 65, was arrested without incident at about 9:30 a.m. in Puerto Rico as he drove through the northern coastal city of Manati, an FBI spokesman said. He had been a fugitive since fleeing in 1986 to avoid prosecution in the Sept. 12, 1983, armed robbery of a Wells Fargo armored car depot.

Luis Fraticelli, special agent in charge of the FBI San Juan office, said Gonzalez Claudio is believed to have been living in Puerto Rico for more than two decades. News organizations in San Juan were reporting late Thursday that, at least recently, he had been teaching at a private school on the island under the name Jose Ortega Morales.

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