WEBVTT - Epiphany 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:12.920 It's been a year since Victor Heraina stole seven million 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:17.000 dollars disappeared into the night. By this point, the FBI 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:19.599 has taken over control of the case, leaving the West 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:23.000 Harford Police Department at a dead end in their investigation. 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:27.560 Other than Victor being placed on the FBI's infamous Top 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:32.400 ten most Wanted Fugitives list, public interest in the case fizzled. 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:42.800 That is, until January six. Three Kings Day, also known 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:47.159 as Dia de los Reyes or Epiphany, is a religious 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:50.919 holiday marking the day the Three Wise Men visited Baby Jesus. 0:00:52.000 --> 0:01:03.520 In many Spanish speaking communities, it's a celebration rivaling Christmas. Today, 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:08.480 in Hartford, there's an annual parade featuring community members dressed 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:12.440 as King's riding camels down Busy Park Street, much to 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:18.119 the delight for children and onlookers. There's music, food, toy giveaways, 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:20.400 even a chance for a photo op with the Magi. 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.240 But if we go back several decades, was more of 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:28.480 an unofficial celebration, kind of like a block party, And 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:33.320 on that day, in a very different type of procession 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.559 caught everyone's attention, you know, all of a sudden, somebody 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.160 showed up with this big tractor trailer full of toys 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.120 and started luring into kids on Park Street, which is 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.280 the heart of the Puerto Rican commuter at Hartford. The 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:49.440 weather was in the brisk thirties, but that didn't stop 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:53.520 curious community members from gathering around the local moving company's truck, 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:58.560 parked a few miles away from the parade route used today. 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:03.480 Over two hours, three men just as the MAGI handed 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:09.080 out forty dollars worth of toys, food and cash. It 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:12.880 was an exciting occasion for locals, but to West Harford 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:18.679 police officers, something just didn't feel right. Fromhow there must 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:20.840 have been some information passed on to the copts. There 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:23.640 are somebody took them the number of the trackers. They 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:26.239 found out about it, and the truck was sees eventually 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.720 and brought to the detective. The worst hapic they used 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:33.320 the Prince who identified these guys in the truck. And 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:36.120 then the amazing thing is that we've found it. Surprising 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.640 was when the the money shows up that was traceable money. 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:41.720 He showed up there because some of the builds were traceable, 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:45.360 you know, so that I'm thinking myself, my god, there's 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:47.520 some kind of control of all his money. Where did 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.600 it come from? How how these guys getting this money? 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.960 The answer to that question would breathe new life into 0:02:54.960 --> 0:03:00.080 a stalled investigation. How did thousands of dollars stolen the 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.240 previous year from Wells Fargo end up being used to 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:07.000 buy a truck full of toys for kids? Now he's 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:12.799 standing to think of something. It's organized here previously on 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:15.320 White Eagle. It's like all of a sudden, this guy 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:18.440 just existed and there wasn't a lot of background, a 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:21.200 bottom to the head. Each day we put another piece 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:23.920 of the puzzle together, you know, pieces here, and there 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.079 was not the fit. Everybody figured that Victor herain it 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.760 was the inside man, and everybody's waiting for his body 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:35.960 to pop up someplace. My name is zem William Phelps. 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:39.640 I'm an investigative journalist and author of more than forty 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:43.200 true crime books. What you were about to hear is 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.480 the true story of a heist, one that funded an 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:52.640 international independence movement and sparked an investigation spanning nearly four decades. 0:03:53.520 --> 0:04:16.200 This is White Eagle. Every story has its origin. This 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:21.920 one is no different. Investigators looking to understand how and 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:25.040 why Victor Harrain has stole seven million dollars in cash 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:30.920 needed to first consider his connection to Puerto Rico. There 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.360 was a time and maybe the seventies and at least 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:36.000 end of the early eighties, when I think they were 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:39.120 more Puerto Rican people in Hartford on a per capita basis, 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:41.360 and we were any place Celts except for Puerto Rico. 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:46.360 It was a very, very big influential immigrant group, immigrants 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.320 that the United States citizens for the people from the 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:52.400 island looking at Hartford were a big part of the 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:56.600 stake's makeup. That said Mahoney, the Hartford current reporter who 0:04:56.640 --> 0:05:01.040 spoke in the last episode. He caught himself during our discussion, 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.880 but people often forget that Puerto Ricans are in fact 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:08.560 U S citizens, maybe because they lacked the right to 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.560 do basic things such as vote in a presidential election. 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.320 But more on that later. For now, it's important to 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.200 understand that Hartford is home to one of the largest 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:21.880 Puerto Rican communities in the United States. More than forty 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:27.479 of the city's population identifies as Hispanic or Latino, and 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.720 according to some estimates, one out of every three Harford 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:35.279 residents is of Puerto Rican descent. It's an important group, 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:38.280 and it was an important group then I mean candidates 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:42.680 for office in Puerto Rico would occasionally campaigned in Hartford, 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:46.520 the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and kind of like the 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.919 quasi embassy in Hartford. There were so many people in Hartford, 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.560 did the government of the commonwealth headed office to look 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:58.880 after them. Hartford had reciprocity agreements with Puerto Rico. Puerto 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:04.040 Rico would send groups of teachers from university students who 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:06.279 are studying to become teachers to work in Harvard, either 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:09.400 as trainees or to work at Hartford, which kind of 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:11.480 made sense because so many kids in the school system 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:15.600 or from Puerto Rico. Large groups of Puerto Ricans first 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.919 started coming to Connecticut after World War Two, looking for 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:22.159 seasonal work on one of the countless tobacco farms along 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:26.039 sections of the Connecticut River. Many stayed and built the 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:30.320 vibrant community in Hartford in parts of West Harford. Park Street, 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.240 which runs east to west along the city's south end, 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:37.440 is the community's main artery. If you're dropped off on 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:40.520 Park Street, um, you're definitely going to get the food, 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:43.360 You're going to get the language, and you're gonna get 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:48.320 the vibe. Joel Cruz is a lifelong Hartford resident and 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:52.120 senior director of the city's Institute for the Hispanic Family, 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.600 which is part of Catholic Charities and co sponsors the 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:59.560 Three Kings they parade every year. You'll see people you 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:04.120 know talking outside and connecting. The embracement you know, for 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:07.000 us is very important. The close proximity of like the 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:11.560 hugs and the kisses, and Joel describes Harford's Puerto Rican 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:16.080 community as extremely tightening. It had to be, he says, 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:19.040 because for decades there was little to no public support 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:21.840 for Spanish speakers in the city. That's part of the 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.400 reason the Institute for the Hispanic Family grew into what 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:29.560 it is today. It provides opportunities for support and connection, 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:33.560 help that wasn't made available for people like Joel's grandfather 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:36.000 who left Puerto Rico in the fifties and came to 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:39.920 Hartford seeking opportunity. I think that's the sense of people 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:44.080 that came to Hartford and settled in Hartford, specifically from 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:47.240 the Puerto Rican community. It's more like I'm just trying 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.360 to survive, and if you ask me, I don't agree. 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:54.040 I'm not happy, but I'm just trying to survive for 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:57.720 folks who like my dad who saw the racism, who 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:02.000 saw the the abuse, who saw all the inequalities, especially 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.320 like you know, US versus Puerto Rico. He has his 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:09.520 reservations about, like how Puerto Rico has been treated like 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:11.960 a colony, and I see it, like when I go 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:14.560 to Puerto Rico, I can see it's treated like a 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:18.240 colony more than part of the U s or with 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:26.120 fair treatment. It's a world Victor Harana would have known well. 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:30.160 His mother, Gloria, was born in Puerto Rico and migrated 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:34.160 to the US, settling first in the Bronx and later Hartford, 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:39.079 where she raised Victor and his four siblings. Like Joel, 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:44.040 Gloria worked at the Institute for the Hispanic Family. She 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:47.520 was one of the region's first bilingual social workers and 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:51.880 spent forty five years with the organization, working primarily with 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:57.600 young kids. Joel says everyone called her La Madrina, which 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:02.360 translates to the godmother. He says they'd often eat lunch together, 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:06.000 and he loved hearing her stories about sports, Hartford and 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:10.560 Puerto Rico. She was a big time Giants fan, and 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:13.199 so I'm a Patriots fan, and so we will always 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:15.600 talk about that. We will go back and forth They 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.760 were just fun conversations. We will talk about the community. 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:22.440 We will talk about like the riots and Hartford and 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:25.880 how it was sad that the US would continue to 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:28.959 treat Puerto Rico um like a colony when we have 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:32.040 so much to bring. You know, she will talk about 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:35.680 her dislike of that. She she was very vocal about 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:40.839 making sure the younger generation understood we must stand up 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:45.000 for our community. There was one unspoken rule when it 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:49.280 came to talking with Gloria never ever mentioned her son 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:55.640 Victor or the Wells Fargo heist. We always knew not 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.120 to bring up Victor because you know, I mean, imagine 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.680 a mother regardless so what happened, She's still a mother, 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:07.720 and um we always knew we respect to her enough 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.240 not even to bring it up. And for good reason. 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:16.920 Gloria is a controversial figure in this story. A number 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:19.520 of people I spoke with said they thought she knew 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:23.480 about Victor's plan to rob the Wells Fargo depot. A 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.240 few even thought she put him up to it, though 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:30.160 I should know I have never found any evidence to 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:34.640 support that theory. Getting in touch with Victor's mother has 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:38.800 been nearly impossible. During this investigation, I was told by 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:41.760 a very close source. She did not want to be 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:46.800 interviewed by me. I respected that, and it's no surprise. 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:51.240 In the years after the heist, she refused to cooperate 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:55.959 with grand Juries looking into Victor's disappearance, which fueled speculation 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:59.480 that she had something to hide. But any hope of 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:04.400 making last attempt was dash when Joel Cruz revealed something 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.400 during our interview an amazing maybe she actually passed away 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:16.400 last week. Gloria Harraina died on February. She was eight four. Today, 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:18.400 I'm dressing black because I'm actually going to go to 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.840 her funeral. And um, every time we met in the 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:24.400 lunch room, before I got up and I was leaving, 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:28.320 she will always tell me, don't forget your culture, don't 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:31.720 forget your background. She was just a very instrumental person, 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:36.360 very wise, kind, but she you know, she had this 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:38.880 fighting spirit, even at her age. She had this fighting 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:41.760 spirit in her of always making sure that we stood 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.040 up for our rights. Gloria Horana was a staunch supporter 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:49.520 of Puerto Rican independence, regularly attending rallies and protests in 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:52.560 and around Hartford. She was also a member of the 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.719 Hartford chapter of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, a pro 0:11:55.920 --> 0:12:01.040 independence group. She said, died in the role independent Easter. 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:03.959 That's her politics and that's what she lives for. I mean, 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:07.560 whenever there's a protest, you know, involving some kind of 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:11.920 independence issue, she's always there. Victor was a complicated figure 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:16.079 as well. Friends and co workers described him as a loner, 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:19.280 not nearly as active in the community or as vocal 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:23.000 about politics as his mother. But the heist made Victor 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:27.559 something of a folk hero overnight. The stories that we 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.200 were told, you know, talked about him as a very 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:35.600 respectable man and just frustrated with systems and the racism 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.320 that we were experiencing. I think even in the community 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.920 people will talk about it from a perspective of like, look, 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:44.960 he took some of that and he gave out toys, 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:48.319 and you know, he did it out of frustration. I've 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:52.439 never heard throughout the stories of anyone actually judging him 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:57.520 in a negative way. Plus, Victor wasn't violent, not really. 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:02.480 That's actually something former Starford police officer Jack Casey pointed 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:06.560 out during one of our initial conversations. You see, Victor 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:10.679 could have seriously hurt those security guards, even killed them, 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:14.959 but he didn't. And I think that's why throughout Hartford 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:18.320 he became kind of almost like a robin Hood character, 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:20.040 where they'd have his picture up in some of the 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:23.920 little bodegas and the stores on Park Street and people 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:26.000 looked at um. And then when they came back on 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:28.960 Three Kings Day and they were passing out the money 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:32.080 and the food or whatever. So they got a lot 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.600 of goodwill in the community from it. Victor didn't appear 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:38.200 at the Three Kings Day parade, but the money he 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:42.360 stole more than a year earlier did. West Harford police 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:45.240 were able to confirm that serial numbers on the banded 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:50.280 bills matched those stolen from the Wells Fargo depot. But 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:52.880 what many weren't aware of at the time was that 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:56.520 over in Puerto Rico, the FBI had already spent months 0:13:56.760 --> 0:14:01.080 making huge investigative strides in the case. The question is, 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:03.280 you know, why why did they pick hard for Why 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:07.320 was this nobody from nowhere Bill? You know, Victor Herrina 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:26.160 the inside man. Yeah, there's only one explanation. Before the 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.480 robin Hood like stunt on Three Kings Day. The last 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.520 anyone heard from Victor Haraina was in the form of 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:36.600 three handwritten postcards sent to various news outlets in which 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.640 he vowed to explain why he robbed the Wells Fargo depot, 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:43.920 while also teasing a major announcement about the missing money. 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:50.440 About a month later, Victor delivered on his promise. A 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.400 typewritten letter was sent to the San Juan offices of 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:58.360 United Press International in Puerto Rico. This time, however, Victor 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:04.560 was not the author. The letter came from an insurgency 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:09.520 group claiming responsibility for the Wells Fargo robbery. In it, 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:12.520 they claimed they spent a year and a half planning 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.440 every stage of the heist and had waited until the 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:18.120 seven million dollars was out of the country and in 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:23.680 a state of quote maximum security before going public. It's 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:27.840 a communicate, but reads more like a manifesto. The group's 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.240 leadership said the money was being used to fund its 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:35.240 revolutionary movement. Quote in the same manner in which we 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:38.480 have sees seven million dollars from the very bowels of 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:43.600 American imperialism, the organized force of the Puerto Rican people 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:47.360 will know how in its own time to seize the 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:51.240 liberty which will allow us to choose our destiny as 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:55.560 a people. End quote. It goes on to read in part. 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.880 We want to report that Comrade Harrena is in a 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:01.840 perfect state of health and has joined the struggle which 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:06.160 our people carry out to obtain our liberation. That was 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:09.760 the Maga Taros, the mas teros, who are upset that 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:12.280 they weren't getting the attention that they thought they deserved 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:16.760 for this patriotic express presation. They wanted to get some 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:20.040 publicity for it, and the police weren't helping him because 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:21.960 the police weren't linking him to the crime, so they 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:25.160 had to take some steps on their own. Los MACHOs, 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:30.080 formerly known as the Boricua Popular Army, are a revolutionary 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:34.040 nationalist group fighting since nineteen seventy six for Puerto Rico's 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:38.000 independence from the United States. Depending on who you ask, 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:42.680 Los mace Tero's translates to either the machete wielders or 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:46.479 the cane cutters, a reference to Puerto Ricans who harvested 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:51.200 sugarcane under Spanish and later American sugar monopolies, some of 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:55.120 whom used their tools as weapons in the Spanish American War. 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.720 Half of the people I spoke with described them as 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:02.400 ter arrests, the other half said they were a pro 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:05.879 independence group. We can say that they were radical in 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:09.720 the sense of the means that they were using to 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:15.240 fight for or struggle for independence. Dr Jose A. Tellis 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:18.600 is a professor at the University of Illinois or ban 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:23.960 As Champagne. My areas of research as mainly Puerto Rico. 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.720 I studied the legal and political relationship between Puerto Rico 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:33.080 and the US, with special emphasis and colonialism and legal 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:38.760 mobilizations and pro independence movement. He's also from Puerto Rico 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:42.960 and grew up hearing stories about Los mach Terros exploits. 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:48.640 There were a small group and they were described in 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.800 the media as terrorist criminal. The fact that Puerto Rico 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:57.920 still being a colony kind of chose you that they 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:02.000 didn't get the supper or that they wanted right and 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:06.879 that this society were not behind these the type of actions. 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:10.000 It's important to bear in mind that they were part 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:14.360 of historical context, right. That was what prow independence, Antiicolonian 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:20.639 movement we're doing in there's seventies and eighties everywhere, not 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:27.280 only Puerto Rico, pot Ireland, the Basque Country, Catalunia and elsewhere. 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:32.440 Experts say that Macha Terros are not a major player today, 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:34.920 but in the late seventies and early eighties. The group 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:38.720 was engaged in armed conflict with the US government, with 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:43.040 cells in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and barrios across the continental 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:50.399 United States, including Hartford, Connecticut. A lot of Puerto Ricans 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:55.400 that joined prow independence movement in the seventies sixties seventies 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:59.560 either were first generation Puerto Rican Puerto Ricans who migrated 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:05.879 with the parents that grew up facing discrimination, racism, poverty, 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:11.000 So it was not hard seeing that Puerto Rican would 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:16.800 join uh struggle that advocated for independence from Puerto Rico, 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:24.800 social justice or economic justice, and also some anti racism, 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:34.240 anti oppression at large. Can you tell me about yourself, 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:38.720 Robert s Hibe, But we're in October thirty one, nineteen 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:43.639 seven Halloween birth He had it better than that. Bob 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:47.080 Hyble as a former FBI agent and Deputy chief of 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:51.240 the Bureau's counter Terrorism Division. He's been stationed all over 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:53.960 but spent the early part of his career in San Juan, 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:58.240 Puerto Rico work in the island's separatist movements. We were 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:01.960 having a series of bombings and I was fortunate enough 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.560 to have the case on the key player Philiberto Terrios. 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:10.280 Bob would go on to study and investigate Philiberto Ojeda 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:14.080 Rios's life, which included the founding of Mirra, a pro 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:19.000 independence group in the sixties, followed by Los Macha Terros 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:21.960 and its sister organization, the f a l N in 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:26.840 the mid seventies. Here's reporter at mahoney. There were two 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.879 wings of the nationalist movement. I mean there was the 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:32.760 f a l N, which was in charge of the 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:37.040 quote unquote activities on the mainland, and there were the 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:43.800 Macha Terris who were involved supposedly in activities. The FA 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:46.440 l N was doing his damage in Chicago and New York. 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.880 All right, they were blown up France's tavern, They're blown up, 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:53.920 you know, the mobile oil building. They're blown up, things 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:57.359 like that. Over the course of nearly a decade, both 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:00.400 Los Macha Terros and the f a l N claim 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:05.040 responsibility for over one attacks in the continental United States 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.560 and Puerto Rico, including the murder of a police officer, 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:13.240 the bombing of eleven unmanned aircrafts on a National Guard airfield, 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:16.359 and an attack on a Navy bus which left three 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:20.359 people dead and eight sailors wounded. Back then, things were 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:22.159 getting blown up quite a bit too because of the 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:30.840 Machan terrorist In late October, just six weeks after the 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:34.480 Wells Fargo heighst the group used the shoulder launched rocket 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:38.080 to strike a federal building in Puerto Rico. They called 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:43.719 a laws rocket l a WUS Laws and somebody you know, 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:49.280 initiated a missile attack on the federal building in a 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:51.840 place called at del Rey, which is the commercial center 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:54.840 of San Juan. They were aiming for the FBI officers 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:57.600 and they actually hit, you know, for the part of agriculture. 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:01.680 No one was killed, but the harget was clear. One 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:06.919 year firing rockets into buildings in the middle of downtown 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:10.960 San Juan, chances are, you know, you're taking a risk 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:14.639 of hurting somebody. You know this that law missile it 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:19.919 was fired again, Bobbe. They recovered the two from that 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:24.200 law missile. It was part of a lot that was 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:28.879 left in Vietnam and the Vietnamese furnished it to the 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:34.040 Cubans and they given furnished it the mar barrels. When 0:22:34.040 --> 0:22:38.080 they fired the law missile at the FBI building and missed, 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:44.480 they discovered the car that was used and the search 0:22:44.520 --> 0:22:49.399 of the car was so thorough that they recovered a 0:22:49.800 --> 0:22:53.640 traffic ticket. So what they did is they identified where 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:56.880 the car had been parked from the ticket was issued. 0:22:57.520 --> 0:23:02.520 They set up with surveillance and took some pictures, and 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:06.320 I got a call from the supervisor and saying on 0:23:06.480 --> 0:23:09.240 it said, Bob, can you come down to Puerto Rico. 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:12.919 I want you to look at some pictures. Because I 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:16.000 was one of the only two FBI agents that everything 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:20.560 Philip Bertho in person, and uh, sure enough, it was 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:24.479 fully better to the photographs. So from then on they 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:28.359 were able to identify where he was living in The 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:32.560 whole investigative approach to this changed and it became a 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:50.200 major case. From that point on, m the FBI began 0:23:50.280 --> 0:23:54.639 a detailed surveillance of Philip Berto Ojeda Rios, tracking the 0:23:54.800 --> 0:24:00.320 comings and goings of anyone associated with los Ma Terosh. 0:24:01.760 --> 0:24:04.720 Over the next six months, the bureau collected enough evidence 0:24:04.760 --> 0:24:07.240 to obtain a search warrant for one of the group's 0:24:07.480 --> 0:24:11.960 safe houses. Inside they found a treasure trove of documents. 0:24:15.440 --> 0:24:18.879 To the surveillance, they were able to do microphones and 0:24:19.400 --> 0:24:23.720 wire taps, and because they had a microphone in Philip 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:27.440 Bertor's car, it was in those wire tapped conversations that 0:24:27.560 --> 0:24:31.600 investigators first heard chatter of the missing seven million dollars. 0:24:32.280 --> 0:24:38.600 Here's reporter Ed Mahoney again. No one ever conceived, No 0:24:38.680 --> 0:24:42.680 one law enforcement had any clue or even thought or 0:24:42.840 --> 0:24:47.120 imagine you know that a group of radical independent east 0:24:47.280 --> 0:24:50.800 is at an island in the Caribbean. We're knocking off 0:24:51.000 --> 0:24:54.240 armored cars in Hartford, Connecticut. It's just never occurred to anybody, 0:24:54.560 --> 0:24:56.840 and there's really no reason why it should have occurred anybody. 0:24:57.760 --> 0:25:02.120 The timelines in this case are actively confusing. The discovery 0:25:02.200 --> 0:25:05.600 made by the FBI happened before Victor Herrina and the 0:25:05.680 --> 0:25:09.400 Macha Terros took credit for Wells Fargo. But it's important 0:25:09.440 --> 0:25:13.080 to remember that the FBI's field office in Puerto Rico 0:25:13.520 --> 0:25:17.760 was investigating a rocket attack in San Juan, not a 0:25:17.960 --> 0:25:22.640 robbery in West Harford. They were focused on their own investigation. 0:25:23.760 --> 0:25:28.520 The discovery of the stolen money was a surprise. The 0:25:28.680 --> 0:25:33.280 FBI in Connecticut never woke up to this thing, you know. 0:25:33.400 --> 0:25:38.680 It was the FBI in Puerto Rico it put all together, 0:25:39.440 --> 0:25:42.920 and it was almost by accident that they did. From there, 0:25:42.960 --> 0:25:46.720 the bureau began piecing together Victor Herrina's connection to Los 0:25:46.800 --> 0:25:50.560 macha Ros. For one, they learned how long Victor had 0:25:50.640 --> 0:25:54.480 prepared for the operation, where he fled after the robbery, 0:25:55.040 --> 0:25:58.080 and who else was involved. But one of the biggest 0:25:58.160 --> 0:26:01.840 questions in this case has always and did Victor just 0:26:02.000 --> 0:26:05.639 happen to start working at Wells Fargo and Los Macha 0:26:05.800 --> 0:26:09.720 Terros saw an opportunity to recruit him? Or was he 0:26:09.880 --> 0:26:13.840 groomed by the group to apply for the job. Do 0:26:13.920 --> 0:26:17.399 you know how they recruited Victor Harena? I think that 0:26:17.720 --> 0:26:20.760 it was through his mother. Through his mother, I think, 0:26:22.240 --> 0:26:24.840 how does a guy like that though drive away with 0:26:25.000 --> 0:26:29.119 thirt hundred pounds of money and then disappear. It was 0:26:29.160 --> 0:26:34.080 well prepared. One thing about Ajit, he was a tremendous planner. 0:26:35.600 --> 0:26:40.640 Everything Philiberto Oheda Rios did was intentional. Take the date 0:26:40.720 --> 0:26:43.720 of the heist as an example to a lot of folks. 0:26:43.840 --> 0:26:48.520 September twelve is just another day to Puerto Ricans. It's 0:26:48.560 --> 0:26:52.280 the birthday of Pedro L. Bzoo Campos, a leader in 0:26:52.359 --> 0:26:56.040 Puerto Rican's independence movement, a man seen to this day 0:26:56.640 --> 0:27:00.800 as a national hero and patriot. I spoke to a 0:27:00.920 --> 0:27:05.920 former member of Los Machateros. He wouldn't confirm how the 0:27:06.000 --> 0:27:09.399 group came into contact with Victor, only that a quote 0:27:09.520 --> 0:27:14.000 friend helped identify the opportunity at Wells Fargo and made 0:27:14.040 --> 0:27:19.160 the introduction. It's worth pointing out here that Victor started 0:27:19.240 --> 0:27:23.520 his job at Wells Fargo in May two, just shy 0:27:23.840 --> 0:27:27.040 of a year and a half before the heist. In 0:27:27.160 --> 0:27:30.240 the communic at which the macha Ros take credit for 0:27:30.280 --> 0:27:33.960 the robbery, it's noted that the planning took a year 0:27:34.000 --> 0:27:41.840 and a half to fully execute. That former Macheterro member 0:27:41.920 --> 0:27:44.920 told me that at the time, Victor was angry about 0:27:45.000 --> 0:27:48.879 Puerto Rico's political status and eager to do something about it. 0:27:49.600 --> 0:27:52.200 He felt the US treated the island like a colony, 0:27:52.680 --> 0:27:57.280 using it for military exercises, stripping it of its natural resources, 0:27:57.359 --> 0:28:02.040 and depriving residents of basic opportunities. Like many Puerto Ricans 0:28:02.080 --> 0:28:05.159