Puerto Rican nationalist pleads guilty to charges related to 1983 Wells Fargo robbery in Conn.

Puerto Rican pleads guilty to 1983 Conn. robbery

HARTFORD, Conn. — A Puerto Rican nationalist has pleaded guilty to federal charges related to his involvement in a 1983 armored truck robbery of about $7 million in Connecticut — one of the largest robberies in American history.

Federal prosecutors said Friday that 67-year-old Avelino Gonzalez-Claudio pleaded guilty in Hartford to foreign transportation of stolen money and conspiracy to rob federally insured bank funds.

Gonzalez-Claudio conspired with others to rob the Wells Fargo Armored Service Corp. in West Hartford and to transport the stolen money to Mexico, authorities said.

Authorities allege the robbery was committed to fund the activities of Los Macheteros, a clandestine organization that seeks Puerto Rican independence.

Gonzalez-Claudio was a fugitive for more than 22 years before he was arrested in 2008 in Puerto Rico, where he had been living under an assumed name. He faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced May 26. A plea agreement, subject to court approval, calls for a seven-year sentence.

“It’s a very fair and I would say favorable resolution,” Gonzalez-Claudio’s attorney, James Bergenn, said Friday.

Bergenn has said his client’s membership in the Macheteros was not a crime and accused prosecutors of making unsubstantiated claims about him.

The Macheteros, whose name translates as “Machete Wielders” or “Cane Cutters,” are suspected of using the stolen millions to finance bombings and attacks designed to promote independence for the U.S. territory.

Their alleged leader, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, was killed in a 2005 shootout with the FBI at a remote farmhouse in Puerto Rico.

The robbery was allegedly carried out by Victor Gerena, a Wells Fargo driver recruited by the independence group. Authorities say Gerena took two co-workers hostage at gunpoint, handcuffed them and injected them with an unknown substance to disable them.

Gonzalez is accused of helping to get Gerena and the half-ton of cash out of the United States.

Two suspects, Gerena and Gonzalez-Claudio’s brother, Norberto Gonzalez-Claudio, remain at large, and Gerena is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.