They arrived in construction vests and surgical masks, armed with signal jammers, sledgehammers and blowtorches. The bank heist crew, made up of mainly Chilean nationals, hit multiple banks across California, according to federal prosecutors, and made off with $2.5 million.
In Fresno, the crew hit a Wells Fargo in May and used tools to get inside an ATM vault through an adjacent unit and made off with more than $80,000 in cash. The next month in Auburn, they scored $226,000 from a Golden 1 Credit Union branch and followed that up several days later by stealing money from two ATMs in Clovis estimated to have carried $150,000-$200,000 each.
But earlier this month, 10 individuals believed to be part of the crew were charged in connection with the robberies. Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California charged Alex Moyano Morales, Maite Celis Silva, Erik Osorio Olivarez, Pablo Andres Valdez Rodriguez, Rosa Francisca Bastias Serra, Camilo Andres Sepulveda Guzman, John Doe 2, Bassil Alejandro Cacosta Frias, Camilo Alarcon Alarcon and Michelle Alondra Parada Muñoz on Oct. 21. The charges were first reported by the East Bay Times .