April 28, 2022 • 31 mins
A top Macheteros soldier explains exactly what happened the night of the Wells Fargo heist, including where Victor took the cash in the days that followed. Plus, internal dissent and hubris threatens to derail the entire operation, and we dive deep into a Cuban connection.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
If pulling off one of the largest cash heights in
US history was the easiest step in Victor Horaina's mission
to help fund Puerto Rico's independence movement, it's what happened
after that day in that became the more difficult part
of the operation, getting himself and the stolen seven million
dollars in cash out of the country. For that, Victor
(00:32):
would need help, a lot of it. Fortunately for him,
he had it. Remember those two car hanks the guards
heard on the night of the robbery. According to police documents,
they were to alert a senior member of Los macha
Ros who was waiting outside the Wells Fargo depot in
(00:52):
his own car. Nobody knew at the time was one
Cigar and sat Hey Rios lurking around in the shadows
as the masterminds of this thing, waiting for Victor to
do what he was gonna do previously on White Eagle,
(01:21):
and no only law enforcement had any clue that a
group of radical independent east is at an island of
the Caribbean. We're knocking off armored cars and Harker Kennectic.
A lot of Puerto Ricans that joined probably independence movement
in the sixties seventies, grew up facing discriminations raising some party.
(01:42):
Even in the community. People would talk about it from
a perspective of look, he took some of that and
he gave out toys, and you know, he did it
out of frustration the master arrests, who were upset that
they were getting the attention that they thought they deserved
for this patriotic expressionation and they wanted to get some
p policy forward. My name is em William Phelps. I'm
(02:04):
an investigative journalist and author of more than forty true
crime books. What you were about to hear is the
true story of a heist, one that funded an international
independence movement and sparked an investigation spanning nearly four decades.
This is White Eagle. There are a few key players
(02:35):
in this story. Victor Harraina is one, Philiberto Ojeda Rios
is another. A third, and the man I immediately set
my sights on when I set out to do this
podcast was Juan Zigara Palmer. At the time of the robbery,
he was considered one of the Macha Tero's top soldiers
(02:55):
and is often called one of its founders. And as
Fred current reporter Ed Mahoney explains Jan was more than
just an accomplice on the night of the robbery. He
was a mentor to Victor Harrina in the months proceeding
and following that night. The cigar is the big cup
of tier on this thing, and so he's training Victor
(03:17):
on what to do with the robbery and the money
and that sort of thing. In many ways, one was
the go between for Victor and Los MACHOs. He claims
to be the person who introduced Victor to Philiberto and
other members of the group, and according to several sources
I've spoken with, he remains in close contact with Victor's
(03:37):
family to this day. His father was a well reputated
lawyer in Puerto Rico who send his kids to this
boarding school in New England and then he goes through hardbar.
Doctor Jose Attila's, who you heard in the last episode,
is an expert on anti colonial movements, which includes Los
(04:01):
ma Teros the story. I'm sure that you might have
access to him and to his history. He's really interesting.
Dr Attila's is right. I did have access to one.
I had interviewed him at length and planned to use
hours of recorded conversations in the podcast. But after weeks
(04:25):
of back and forth, One abruptly pulled out of the project,
deciding it was in his best interest not to participate.
It was disappointing, of course, here's a man who was there,
an intricate spoken the wheel of the Wells Fargo operation,
who expressed a great desire to share his side of
the story, but then declines. Fortunately for us, though One
(04:49):
is a talker, He's spoken at length about the heist
and his time with Los mag Terro's, most notably in
the Last American Colony, a documentary produced by Northern Light Productions.
The producer graciously shared One's interviews from the documentary with
me because in the end, to truly understand what really
(05:10):
happened that night in West Harford and in the years
that followed, to get both sides of this story, you
need to hear from someone who was there every step
of the way. I was waiting for him outside. It
was the longest hour or whatever of my entire life.
By the mid eighties, law enforcement knew about Juan Zigara
(05:33):
and Los mata Tero's involvement in the Wells Fargo robbery,
but the specifics, the detailed accounts of what actually happened
took decades to unravel, thanks in a large part to Wangara.
One has always been squirrely about his initial introduction to
Victor Haraina, but has admitted that Victor traveled at some
(05:55):
point to see Philiberto in Puerto Rico to discuss logistics
of the robbery and future as a fugitive. After Victor
was given the green light for the job, the group
went into planning mode, and by March of Victor was
having regular conversations with Wan Sagara using local pay phones
to avoid a paper or electronic trail. For much of
(06:18):
the spring and summer of nighte Wan Zigara and Los
macha Ros were laser focused on Aguila Blanca White Eagle,
the code name given to the West Tarford Wells Fargo operation.
Then in August that same year, Juan and Philiberto flew
to Connecticut to help Victor finished polishing every last detail,
(06:41):
including rehearsing the more risky aspects of the robbery scheduled
for the following month. We did several role plays in
motels in the Hartford area. We rented a room so
he practiced grabbing me by the nag and take me
to the ground, so there was gonna be no question
(07:03):
about him being able to a mobilized the guy with
the element of surprise and then take him down. Wand
told the producer of The Last American Colony that he
and Victor also practiced driving from the Wells Fargo depot
to local motels, timing each trip until they had it
down to a science. After the robbery, they drove directly
(07:24):
to the Swiss Chalet, in emptied the money out of
the bugles saber, and took off. By the time they
were gone, police would have just arrived at the Wells
Fargo depot. I felt we had pulled off a great job.
Nobody had been caught, nobody was hurt. Yeah, I was arrogant.
(07:45):
From there, both men would help Victor embark on a
daring interstate journey, the first part of which included a
less conspicuous form of transportation. They bought a motorcycle. They
put him on the motorcycle, and Victor left from there.
During his drive north from West Tarford, Connecticut to Springfield, Massachusetts,
Victor tossed his wallet at a rest stop along the
(08:08):
Massachusetts Turnpike. That wallet, which contained his I D was
later discovered by Department of Transportation employees. Victory eventually ended
up in Boston, and the cash and up in Springfield,
where it was hidden. The motorcycle was the perfect solution
to Los Macha terros first obstacle, how to get one
(08:31):
of the country's most wanted men safely out of West Tarford.
The second, much larger hurdle, was how to get about
a half ton of stolen cash where it needed to go.
Turns out, Juanzagara and Philipperto oheed Rios had already thought
that scenario out as well. It's a combination of the
(08:53):
match terrists. Principally Ojeda and Cigar are up in Austin.
They buy a loader home and they have somebody one
of these Maga Terros is some kind of a carpenter,
you know, pulls a bunch of false walls and things
like that into this thing. About two weeks after the heist,
(09:17):
one hit Victor and some of the money behind the
walls of a camper trailer, and the pair headed to Mexico,
taking some of the stolen cash with them. In the
months that followed, other members of Los MACHOs and their
associates would follow suit, traveled to New England, load up
a car or camper, and take chunks of cash across
(09:39):
the border into Mexico. In all, the group transported more
than two thirds of the Wells Fargo money out of
the US that first year, despite having some dangerously close
calls with law enforcement. Case in point, in August of
Juanzigara's cash heavy ampor trailer flipped over on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
(10:03):
My friend loaned me his pickup truck and camper. We
were on the turnpike in in Pennsylvania going down this
pretty steep hill and this semi blew past us and
we ended up flipped over, facing in the opposite direction
on the right hand lane of the vehicle. The money
(10:26):
that was hidden in the wall behind the walls of
the of the trailer, you know, the panels burst. One
of us jumped in the trailer and started throwing the
money and bags and stashing it back before the state
police arrived, and you know, sure got past that one.
(10:51):
Mexico was the pit stop of choice for Los Macha Terras.
It was also a place where they could easily communicate
with operatives from the Cuban gu government, including the man
who would help smuggle Victor Harana out of the country.
I always called it a Cuban spy, and he was
always upset with me for saying that, because he considered
(11:11):
himself some kind of diplomatic. But you know, Cuba's had
a diplomatic department called the Department of the America's whose
function was to fallment, you know, left his insurgencies across
Latin America, and he was associated with that. The Cuban spy,
(11:32):
whose real name is Jorge Massetti, eventually became disillusioned with
Fidel Castro and left his job with the government. He
even wrote a book about it. But back in three
he played an instrumental role in the Macha Teros as
wells Fargo heist. According to Ed Mahoney, Massetti had met
(11:53):
Juan Zigara and other members of Los Macha Teros in
the months before the robbery and even gave them fifty
tho dollars to help pull it off an investment. Perhaps
they provided the bunch of terrells with the stuff that
they injected the guards with, and some type of crazy
(12:15):
radio transmitter that probably didn't work anyway, and a bunch
of things like that. Massetti told Ed Mahoney that The
group went to great lengths to help Victor get out
of the country. They dyed his hair and Victor head
out in Mexico's Cuban embassy, where they helped him acquire
a fake passport. From there, Victor bordered a flight to Cuba,
(12:37):
along with the first batch of cash tucked inside Cuba's
diplomatic pouch. The thing is, the FBI is not doing
anything because they don't know anything about this. I mean,
they're still looking, you know, for some gang of Irish
drugs from Charlestown, you know who came down and knocked
off at Aubrey car I mean, they have no idea
what's going on. By that time, Victor her own had
(12:58):
been secreted in Cuba. The plan was they would get
Victor over there and he would be out of their
ancient American authorities. There's all kinds of people in Cuba there,
you know, hiding out from American authorities. If you've grown
(13:21):
up in the United States, chances are you've heard a
lot about Cuba. Our time capsule island of a neighbor
just ninety miles off the coast of Florida. The relationship
between the two countries is far too complex to explain
in one sitting. For that we'd need an entire episode,
but here are some of the broad strokes. Like Puerto Rico,
(13:44):
Cuba was annexed by the United States after the Spanish
American War. It was granted independence soon thereafter, but the
United States retained large swaths of land, military bases like
Guantanamo Bay, and a cho cold on Cuba's economy. All
that changed into fifties when its enigmatic former leader, Fidel Castro,
(14:08):
helped mount a revolution that toppled the country's American backed president.
While the US initially recognized Cuba's new government, the relationships soured,
American citizens fled the island, and the US government launched
dozens of unsuccessful attempts to overthrow Castro's government economy. Fidel
(14:29):
Castro died in t s after nearly a half century
in power. Critics called him a terrorist and dictator who
bankrupted Cuba's economy and ruthlessly punished all forms of dissent.
Admirers saw him as a revolutionary icon who oversaw improvements
to literacy and life expectancy, and helped mobilize anti imperialist
(14:53):
movements around the world, including Puerto Rico. There is a
famous song says that Cuba and Puerto Rico are the
two wings of one bird. And so obviously our histories
are tied through the Spanish American War, and we've always
been kind of looking to see what the other is
doing and in close connection among artists and intellectuals. That's
(15:16):
Dr Yarimar Bonia Ramos. She's a political anthropologist and the
director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter
College in New York. For a long time, Puerto Rico
is a kind of ambiguous zone, and during that time
politics cemented around two main currents. There were the folks
who wanted Puerto Rico to be part of the United
(15:38):
States and who always imagined that to be what was
to be expected. But other folks felt that that was
not what they wanted and they wanted to be their
own nation, and so there was always an independence movement
growing and growing steadily. Castro and many others behind Cuba's
revolution understood this, and while there were thousands of people
(15:59):
who fled the islands in Cuba for Puerto Rico, others
saw the Cuban Revolution as a model for sovereignty. Among
them Philiberto Ojeda Rios, the leader of Los mace Teros.
After the Bay of Pigs, I became aware of him
initially in New York. Actually, Bob Hybel, who spoke in
(16:20):
the last episode, spent twenty five years with the FBI,
finishing his incredible career as a sack or special agent
in charge. If there's an agent who knows the relationship
between Puerto Rico and America and how Los mace Tero's
factor into that equation, it's Bob. Now, the Cuban Intelligence Service,
which was called G two at that time, to stay
(16:42):
offensive and began to send sleeper agents out, and Philiberto
was one of those sleeper agents. The G two is
a military intelligence service, or as others call it, state security.
Its agents were trained by the German Stasi and the
Soviet KGB, and we're responsible for intelligence, counter intelligence and
(17:07):
disinformation activities inside Cuba and abroad. So from the beginning,
the Castro was a total supporter of Kenning independence for
Puerto Rico and his modus OPERANDAI of course was supporting
revolution to do that in any form that worked. In
(17:30):
ninety six, Castro told the Group of World Leaders, quote
any revolutionary movement in any corner of the world can
count on the help of Cuban fighters, and he made
good on that promise. About a decade later, right as
the US of Cuba were in talks to improve diplomatic relations,
Castro intervened in an armed operation of the African nation
(17:53):
of Angola, and more important for US in Puerto Rico's
pro independence organization to move the rail talks between Cuba
and the US, but appeal to Filiberto or hey To Rios,
who believed deeply that colonized people, which in his view
included Puerto Ricans, had a right to arm struggle. What's more,
(18:14):
he felt it was critical to reclaiming their identity. Filiberto
is a very interesting fear. First of all, he was
a trumpet player with one of the fifties bands that
started moving to more pro independence radicalize if you wish,
(18:36):
and at some point he started moving to ARMStrokes or
more to left wing of the pro independence movement. At
some point he ended up in Cuba getting in training.
I think it was a revolution that show a lot
of Puerto Ricans that they could have an arm move
(19:00):
and that created a condition for mass moblization. Cuba's revolution
in the fifties. Inspired Philiberto, and Castro's government gave him
the tools he needed to try and replicate it. He
viewed himself as a patriot and he was fighting for truth,
justice to the American white He thought he was at
(19:21):
George Washington and Puerto Rico. After Cuba, Philiberto went to
New York and later Puerto Rico, eventually recruiting Juan Zigara,
whom he met in nineteen seventy two. Like Philiberto, Juan
was born in Puerto Rico. His family was wealthy, and
he had a long history of resistance to Spanish and
American colonialism. As a teen, he attended the prestigious Phillips
(19:45):
Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and later Harvard University, where in
nineteen sixty nine Juan witnessed the violent suppression of hundreds
of students protesting the Vietnam War. Then trying take was
that Vietnam had one The Cuban Revolution at that time
(20:07):
was like a beacon to a lot of Latin America.
The tide of history is on the side of anti colonialism.
We should be able to prevail. In those years. After Harvard,
wand began training with Philiberto and in nineteen seventy six
helped found Los Materos. Like Cuba's revolutionaries, Los mach Teros
(20:33):
used a clandestine cell system to organize its activities. A
central committee led the organization, but individual cells carried out
operations and information was kept to a need to know basis.
Government documents show that Los Machteros cultivated dozens of fake identities.
For example, in order to buy weapons for the group,
(20:56):
one would troll graveyards, picking out and then using names
of the deceased to apply for birth certificates and driver's license.
He also led weapons training, having learned to fire a
gun at the Harvard Shooting Club. My expectation was that
either we won or I would end up in prison
(21:17):
or dead. Those were the three options, and you know
felt that more likely than not the prison or death
would be the more likely outcomes. But at that time
of my life, I was I was ready to take
on that that risk and that responsibility. In many ways,
Philiberto and Juan were the ideal match for the pro
(21:40):
independence mission. Intellectual, courageous and ready and willing to give
up their lives for a cause they believed in deeply.
After founding Los macha Ros. They would go on to
mastermind more than a dozen violent attacks against the U.
S Government and major institutions in Puerto Rico in the
(22:00):
name of independence. Then in January, the group made international
headlines as part of its protest to a draft registration
on the island. A Puerto Rican independence group which calls
itself the Maschity Wielders, claims that knocked out half the
planes or the island's Air National Guard order Today time
(22:22):
bombs planted at uns Air Base blew up nine jet
fighters and damage to others. Nobody was injured. Damage was
put at forty five million dollars. One Cigara was integral
and planning and carrying out that attack, even touring the
Munese Air National Guard base with his family and taking
pictures in front of the planes to indicate where the
(22:44):
bombs would go. The final gift was when the National
Guard had an open house on the base, so I
brought my kids in to look at the planes when
right up to the blades, took pictures of them, and
that helps us to stay which is exactly where the
explosives was going to be located. To fund its efforts,
(23:05):
Los Mater's frequently robbed major corporations. In fact, before the
West Harford success, the group made at least four attempts
at robbing Wells Fargo armored vehicles in Puerto Rico, the
last of which involved a number of heavily armed militants
who got away with five and eighty seven thousand dollars
(23:26):
in cash and checks before shooting and killing the driver.
While the money from these robberies helped, the group kept
many members on its payroll and needed cash for salaries,
so after recruiting Victor Harrina, they jumped at the Wells
Fargo opportunity. There's no way to really know the complete
(23:47):
or even true story of how Los MACHOs first connected
with Victor he Rena, but in the Last American Colony documentary,
Wan tells his version about how he met Victor. The
sky approached me and he says, you know, he's working
on an armored truck and he transports between seven to
(24:07):
ten million dollars every Monday, and he wants to donate
it to the struggle. It's like, whoa, it's almost too
good to be true. Six weeks after the West Harford heist,
Los Mao's grew even Boulder. Hours after they fired the
(24:31):
law rocket on the FBI's federal building in San Juan,
a woman phoned the local Associated Press offices on behalf
of Los Macha Tero's taking credit for the attack. What
she said was launched in support of the people of
Grenada at the height of the US invasion. There here's
reporter Ed Mahoney one Cigaris. You know, protests about this
(24:57):
being a non violent situation that wasithstanding. The FBI at
a different point of view. They thought it was very violent,
and they thought there was a lot of property damage.
And you know, there was aqua ducts getting blown up,
their bombard cars getting ripped off, the thanks getting knocked off,
there were saras getting shot, there were jet planes getting
blown up. I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on.
(25:18):
And you know, somebody in Washington said, you know something,
we can't let this continue to go down, and stop it.
However careful It's soldiers tried to be Mistakes like the
one Los Macha Teros made after firing the law rocket
were costly. Take for example, that seemingly inconsequential parking ticket
found in a car near the Federal building. That one
(25:40):
scrap of paper set off a chain of events that
eventually led to the FBI surveying Philiberto Ohada Rios's car
and a number of Los Macha terrorist is safe houses.
Pilaberto was on everybody's top ten list because you know,
Philiberto was a member Boma to Charter, member of the
(26:02):
Cuban Director in General with intelligence, So that got everybody's
at catching. It was in April when federal agents obtained
the warrant to go inside one of the safe houses.
There they found dozens of internal Machtero's documents, including code
(26:22):
names for various operatives and proof of a relationship with
the Cuban government. It was more than enough to justify
installing wire taps. And then those conversations. They learned about
the group's involvement in the Wells Fargo robbery, and heard
conversations between Wan and Philip Berto discussing whether to smuggle
(26:43):
Victor's fiancee, Anna Soto out of the US and into
Cuba as they had promised Victor from the start. They're
talking about trying to smuggle Victor into Cuba so they
can be together again. You know, the Cubans are saying
to forget about him. You know, what do you think
we're running here? You know, this isn't some kind of
(27:05):
lonely hearts that we've got going over here. The wire
tapped conversations would also highlight the ideological differences in the organization,
as we saw with Wells Fargo, Los Macha. Taro's weren't
shy about taking credit for their work, but how and
when to seek out the press became a major point
(27:25):
of contention within the organization. Should they send money to
local publications, When was the right time to take credit
for the heist? Most importantly, who should have access to
all that stolen cash? They split up the money, But
what happens was Casper didn't have a lot of money,
but he gave him guns, and he gave him trading,
(27:47):
and he gave him encouragement, and he gave him support,
and he gave him back up. I think the money
went to Cuba on the plane with Victor. And in
the final analysis, they said, is our money? And they
ast us at one money and they said the money
at we still we said, when you could have it,
that we're going to take half of it. And that
(28:08):
caused a lot of adja among the macha tarots because hey,
we stole the money. It's our money. But money, especially
stolen money, changes everything, particularly as Ed Mahoney explains, for
folks planning big things for the cash. But they were
gonna launch diplomatic initiatives with the insurgents of nic owaugu
(28:31):
Or and El salad Or. They're going to finance revolutions
and said, and these people were kind of crazy with
their ideas and being doctor near Maoists and Marxists. They kept,
you know, beautiful notes that really internal discussion and the
date they ever had, and there was a lot of
the scent and disappointment that they didn't get to keep
(28:52):
all their money because the Cubans took halfol it or
Castor took cabinet. There was actually some conversation from Philiberto saying, hey, buddies,
love with it, all right, what are we gonna do
about it? We're gonna attack you. But but forget about it.
They got the money. They got the money. That's the
way it goes. Here's former FBI agent Bob Hybel. Again,
(29:13):
what the money did was corrupted the man who had
them break into different groups. Some wanted to keep the money.
They didn't want to send any more money to Cuba.
You had some of them who had access to the
money and began to spend the money. My source in
the organization agrees, he said. By late nineteen four, the
group had started to fracture. Even publicity efforts like the
(29:35):
toy giveaway on three Kings, they became controversial in a
point of contention. They wanted to own it, and they
wanted to create the impression of being a group that
you know, looked out for the poor, just to get
their name out. Lo Sma Terros wanted to own it,
(29:58):
and they did. But all that talk about the money,
how to spend it, when to admit they've taken it
now those discussions would have major consequences and forced the
first domino in a long line to topple over next
(30:20):
time a White Eagle, The FBI raids began after dawn
in San Juan and nearby cities. Eleven people were rounded
up in Puerto Rico, Another was arrested in Dallas, one
more in Boston. Things fall Apart. White Eagle is written
and executive produced by me Em William Phelps and I
(30:41):
Heart executive producer Christina Everett. Additional writing by our supervising producer,
Julia Weaver. Our associate producer and script supervisor is Darby Masters,
Audio editing and mixing by Christian Bowman. Our series theme
forms Regal or Grand is written by Aaron Offer. Thanks
to Arlene Santana and Will Pearson at I Heart Radio,
(31:04):
and a very special thank you to Northern Light Productions
and Bester Cram for allowing us to use clips from
the documentary The Last American Colony, which is available to
stream on demand. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
If pulling off one of the largest cash heights in
US history was the easiest step in Victor Horaina's mission
to help fund Puerto Rico's independence movement, it's what happened
after that day in that became the more difficult part
of the operation, getting himself and the stolen seven million
dollars in cash out of the country. For that, Victor
(00:32):
would need help, a lot of it. Fortunately for him,
he had it. Remember those two car hanks the guards
heard on the night of the robbery. According to police documents,
they were to alert a senior member of Los macha
Ros who was waiting outside the Wells Fargo depot in
(00:52):
his own car. Nobody knew at the time was one
Cigar and sat Hey Rios lurking around in the shadows
as the masterminds of this thing, waiting for Victor to
do what he was gonna do previously on White Eagle,
(01:21):
and no only law enforcement had any clue that a
group of radical independent east is at an island of
the Caribbean. We're knocking off armored cars and Harker Kennectic.
A lot of Puerto Ricans that joined probably independence movement
in the sixties seventies, grew up facing discriminations raising some party.
(01:42):
Even in the community. People would talk about it from
a perspective of look, he took some of that and
he gave out toys, and you know, he did it
out of frustration the master arrests, who were upset that
they were getting the attention that they thought they deserved
for this patriotic expressionation and they wanted to get some
p policy forward. My name is em William Phelps. I'm
(02:04):
an investigative journalist and author of more than forty true
crime books. What you were about to hear is the
true story of a heist, one that funded an international
independence movement and sparked an investigation spanning nearly four decades.
This is White Eagle. There are a few key players
(02:35):
in this story. Victor Harraina is one, Philiberto Ojeda Rios
is another. A third, and the man I immediately set
my sights on when I set out to do this
podcast was Juan Zigara Palmer. At the time of the robbery,
he was considered one of the Macha Tero's top soldiers
(02:55):
and is often called one of its founders. And as
Fred current reporter Ed Mahoney explains Jan was more than
just an accomplice on the night of the robbery. He
was a mentor to Victor Harrina in the months proceeding
and following that night. The cigar is the big cup
of tier on this thing, and so he's training Victor
(03:17):
on what to do with the robbery and the money
and that sort of thing. In many ways, one was
the go between for Victor and Los MACHOs. He claims
to be the person who introduced Victor to Philiberto and
other members of the group, and according to several sources
I've spoken with, he remains in close contact with Victor's
(03:37):
family to this day. His father was a well reputated
lawyer in Puerto Rico who send his kids to this
boarding school in New England and then he goes through hardbar.
Doctor Jose Attila's, who you heard in the last episode,
is an expert on anti colonial movements, which includes Los
(04:01):
ma Teros the story. I'm sure that you might have
access to him and to his history. He's really interesting.
Dr Attila's is right. I did have access to one.
I had interviewed him at length and planned to use
hours of recorded conversations in the podcast. But after weeks
(04:25):
of back and forth, One abruptly pulled out of the project,
deciding it was in his best interest not to participate.
It was disappointing, of course, here's a man who was there,
an intricate spoken the wheel of the Wells Fargo operation,
who expressed a great desire to share his side of
the story, but then declines. Fortunately for us, though One
(04:49):
is a talker, He's spoken at length about the heist
and his time with Los mag Terro's, most notably in
the Last American Colony, a documentary produced by Northern Light Productions.
The producer graciously shared One's interviews from the documentary with
me because in the end, to truly understand what really
(05:10):
happened that night in West Harford and in the years
that followed, to get both sides of this story, you
need to hear from someone who was there every step
of the way. I was waiting for him outside. It
was the longest hour or whatever of my entire life.
By the mid eighties, law enforcement knew about Juan Zigara
(05:33):
and Los mata Tero's involvement in the Wells Fargo robbery,
but the specifics, the detailed accounts of what actually happened
took decades to unravel, thanks in a large part to Wangara.
One has always been squirrely about his initial introduction to
Victor Haraina, but has admitted that Victor traveled at some
(05:55):
point to see Philiberto in Puerto Rico to discuss logistics
of the robbery and future as a fugitive. After Victor
was given the green light for the job, the group
went into planning mode, and by March of Victor was
having regular conversations with Wan Sagara using local pay phones
to avoid a paper or electronic trail. For much of
(06:18):
the spring and summer of nighte Wan Zigara and Los
macha Ros were laser focused on Aguila Blanca White Eagle,
the code name given to the West Tarford Wells Fargo operation.
Then in August that same year, Juan and Philiberto flew
to Connecticut to help Victor finished polishing every last detail,
(06:41):
including rehearsing the more risky aspects of the robbery scheduled
for the following month. We did several role plays in
motels in the Hartford area. We rented a room so
he practiced grabbing me by the nag and take me
to the ground, so there was gonna be no question
(07:03):
about him being able to a mobilized the guy with
the element of surprise and then take him down. Wand
told the producer of The Last American Colony that he
and Victor also practiced driving from the Wells Fargo depot
to local motels, timing each trip until they had it
down to a science. After the robbery, they drove directly
(07:24):
to the Swiss Chalet, in emptied the money out of
the bugles saber, and took off. By the time they
were gone, police would have just arrived at the Wells
Fargo depot. I felt we had pulled off a great job.
Nobody had been caught, nobody was hurt. Yeah, I was arrogant.
(07:45):
From there, both men would help Victor embark on a
daring interstate journey, the first part of which included a
less conspicuous form of transportation. They bought a motorcycle. They
put him on the motorcycle, and Victor left from there.
During his drive north from West Tarford, Connecticut to Springfield, Massachusetts,
Victor tossed his wallet at a rest stop along the
(08:08):
Massachusetts Turnpike. That wallet, which contained his I D was
later discovered by Department of Transportation employees. Victory eventually ended
up in Boston, and the cash and up in Springfield,
where it was hidden. The motorcycle was the perfect solution
to Los Macha terros first obstacle, how to get one
(08:31):
of the country's most wanted men safely out of West Tarford.
The second, much larger hurdle, was how to get about
a half ton of stolen cash where it needed to go.
Turns out, Juanzagara and Philipperto oheed Rios had already thought
that scenario out as well. It's a combination of the
(08:53):
match terrists. Principally Ojeda and Cigar are up in Austin.
They buy a loader home and they have somebody one
of these Maga Terros is some kind of a carpenter,
you know, pulls a bunch of false walls and things
like that into this thing. About two weeks after the heist,
(09:17):
one hit Victor and some of the money behind the
walls of a camper trailer, and the pair headed to Mexico,
taking some of the stolen cash with them. In the
months that followed, other members of Los MACHOs and their
associates would follow suit, traveled to New England, load up
a car or camper, and take chunks of cash across
(09:39):
the border into Mexico. In all, the group transported more
than two thirds of the Wells Fargo money out of
the US that first year, despite having some dangerously close
calls with law enforcement. Case in point, in August of
Juanzigara's cash heavy ampor trailer flipped over on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
(10:03):
My friend loaned me his pickup truck and camper. We
were on the turnpike in in Pennsylvania going down this
pretty steep hill and this semi blew past us and
we ended up flipped over, facing in the opposite direction
on the right hand lane of the vehicle. The money
(10:26):
that was hidden in the wall behind the walls of
the of the trailer, you know, the panels burst. One
of us jumped in the trailer and started throwing the
money and bags and stashing it back before the state
police arrived, and you know, sure got past that one.
(10:51):
Mexico was the pit stop of choice for Los Macha Terras.
It was also a place where they could easily communicate
with operatives from the Cuban gu government, including the man
who would help smuggle Victor Harana out of the country.
I always called it a Cuban spy, and he was
always upset with me for saying that, because he considered
(11:11):
himself some kind of diplomatic. But you know, Cuba's had
a diplomatic department called the Department of the America's whose
function was to fallment, you know, left his insurgencies across
Latin America, and he was associated with that. The Cuban spy,
(11:32):
whose real name is Jorge Massetti, eventually became disillusioned with
Fidel Castro and left his job with the government. He
even wrote a book about it. But back in three
he played an instrumental role in the Macha Teros as
wells Fargo heist. According to Ed Mahoney, Massetti had met
(11:53):
Juan Zigara and other members of Los Macha Teros in
the months before the robbery and even gave them fifty
tho dollars to help pull it off an investment. Perhaps
they provided the bunch of terrells with the stuff that
they injected the guards with, and some type of crazy
(12:15):
radio transmitter that probably didn't work anyway, and a bunch
of things like that. Massetti told Ed Mahoney that The
group went to great lengths to help Victor get out
of the country. They dyed his hair and Victor head
out in Mexico's Cuban embassy, where they helped him acquire
a fake passport. From there, Victor bordered a flight to Cuba,
(12:37):
along with the first batch of cash tucked inside Cuba's
diplomatic pouch. The thing is, the FBI is not doing
anything because they don't know anything about this. I mean,
they're still looking, you know, for some gang of Irish
drugs from Charlestown, you know who came down and knocked
off at Aubrey car I mean, they have no idea
what's going on. By that time, Victor her own had
(12:58):
been secreted in Cuba. The plan was they would get
Victor over there and he would be out of their
ancient American authorities. There's all kinds of people in Cuba there,
you know, hiding out from American authorities. If you've grown
(13:21):
up in the United States, chances are you've heard a
lot about Cuba. Our time capsule island of a neighbor
just ninety miles off the coast of Florida. The relationship
between the two countries is far too complex to explain
in one sitting. For that we'd need an entire episode,
but here are some of the broad strokes. Like Puerto Rico,
(13:44):
Cuba was annexed by the United States after the Spanish
American War. It was granted independence soon thereafter, but the
United States retained large swaths of land, military bases like
Guantanamo Bay, and a cho cold on Cuba's economy. All
that changed into fifties when its enigmatic former leader, Fidel Castro,
(14:08):
helped mount a revolution that toppled the country's American backed president.
While the US initially recognized Cuba's new government, the relationships soured,
American citizens fled the island, and the US government launched
dozens of unsuccessful attempts to overthrow Castro's government economy. Fidel
(14:29):
Castro died in t s after nearly a half century
in power. Critics called him a terrorist and dictator who
bankrupted Cuba's economy and ruthlessly punished all forms of dissent.
Admirers saw him as a revolutionary icon who oversaw improvements
to literacy and life expectancy, and helped mobilize anti imperialist
(14:53):
movements around the world, including Puerto Rico. There is a
famous song says that Cuba and Puerto Rico are the
two wings of one bird. And so obviously our histories
are tied through the Spanish American War, and we've always
been kind of looking to see what the other is
doing and in close connection among artists and intellectuals. That's
(15:16):
Dr Yarimar Bonia Ramos. She's a political anthropologist and the
director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter
College in New York. For a long time, Puerto Rico
is a kind of ambiguous zone, and during that time
politics cemented around two main currents. There were the folks
who wanted Puerto Rico to be part of the United
(15:38):
States and who always imagined that to be what was
to be expected. But other folks felt that that was
not what they wanted and they wanted to be their
own nation, and so there was always an independence movement
growing and growing steadily. Castro and many others behind Cuba's
revolution understood this, and while there were thousands of people
(15:59):
who fled the islands in Cuba for Puerto Rico, others
saw the Cuban Revolution as a model for sovereignty. Among
them Philiberto Ojeda Rios, the leader of Los mace Teros.
After the Bay of Pigs, I became aware of him
initially in New York. Actually, Bob Hybel, who spoke in
(16:20):
the last episode, spent twenty five years with the FBI,
finishing his incredible career as a sack or special agent
in charge. If there's an agent who knows the relationship
between Puerto Rico and America and how Los mace Tero's
factor into that equation, it's Bob. Now, the Cuban Intelligence Service,
which was called G two at that time, to stay
(16:42):
offensive and began to send sleeper agents out, and Philiberto
was one of those sleeper agents. The G two is
a military intelligence service, or as others call it, state security.
Its agents were trained by the German Stasi and the
Soviet KGB, and we're responsible for intelligence, counter intelligence and
(17:07):
disinformation activities inside Cuba and abroad. So from the beginning,
the Castro was a total supporter of Kenning independence for
Puerto Rico and his modus OPERANDAI of course was supporting
revolution to do that in any form that worked. In
(17:30):
ninety six, Castro told the Group of World Leaders, quote
any revolutionary movement in any corner of the world can
count on the help of Cuban fighters, and he made
good on that promise. About a decade later, right as
the US of Cuba were in talks to improve diplomatic relations,
Castro intervened in an armed operation of the African nation
(17:53):
of Angola, and more important for US in Puerto Rico's
pro independence organization to move the rail talks between Cuba
and the US, but appeal to Filiberto or hey To Rios,
who believed deeply that colonized people, which in his view
included Puerto Ricans, had a right to arm struggle. What's more,
(18:14):
he felt it was critical to reclaiming their identity. Filiberto
is a very interesting fear. First of all, he was
a trumpet player with one of the fifties bands that
started moving to more pro independence radicalize if you wish,
(18:36):
and at some point he started moving to ARMStrokes or
more to left wing of the pro independence movement. At
some point he ended up in Cuba getting in training.
I think it was a revolution that show a lot
of Puerto Ricans that they could have an arm move
(19:00):
and that created a condition for mass moblization. Cuba's revolution
in the fifties. Inspired Philiberto, and Castro's government gave him
the tools he needed to try and replicate it. He
viewed himself as a patriot and he was fighting for truth,
justice to the American white He thought he was at
(19:21):
George Washington and Puerto Rico. After Cuba, Philiberto went to
New York and later Puerto Rico, eventually recruiting Juan Zigara,
whom he met in nineteen seventy two. Like Philiberto, Juan
was born in Puerto Rico. His family was wealthy, and
he had a long history of resistance to Spanish and
American colonialism. As a teen, he attended the prestigious Phillips
(19:45):
Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and later Harvard University, where in
nineteen sixty nine Juan witnessed the violent suppression of hundreds
of students protesting the Vietnam War. Then trying take was
that Vietnam had one The Cuban Revolution at that time
(20:07):
was like a beacon to a lot of Latin America.
The tide of history is on the side of anti colonialism.
We should be able to prevail. In those years. After Harvard,
wand began training with Philiberto and in nineteen seventy six
helped found Los Materos. Like Cuba's revolutionaries, Los mach Teros
(20:33):
used a clandestine cell system to organize its activities. A
central committee led the organization, but individual cells carried out
operations and information was kept to a need to know basis.
Government documents show that Los Machteros cultivated dozens of fake identities.
For example, in order to buy weapons for the group,
(20:56):
one would troll graveyards, picking out and then using names
of the deceased to apply for birth certificates and driver's license.
He also led weapons training, having learned to fire a
gun at the Harvard Shooting Club. My expectation was that
either we won or I would end up in prison
(21:17):
or dead. Those were the three options, and you know
felt that more likely than not the prison or death
would be the more likely outcomes. But at that time
of my life, I was I was ready to take
on that that risk and that responsibility. In many ways,
Philiberto and Juan were the ideal match for the pro
(21:40):
independence mission. Intellectual, courageous and ready and willing to give
up their lives for a cause they believed in deeply.
After founding Los macha Ros. They would go on to
mastermind more than a dozen violent attacks against the U.
S Government and major institutions in Puerto Rico in the
(22:00):
name of independence. Then in January, the group made international
headlines as part of its protest to a draft registration
on the island. A Puerto Rican independence group which calls
itself the Maschity Wielders, claims that knocked out half the
planes or the island's Air National Guard order Today time
(22:22):
bombs planted at uns Air Base blew up nine jet
fighters and damage to others. Nobody was injured. Damage was
put at forty five million dollars. One Cigara was integral
and planning and carrying out that attack, even touring the
Munese Air National Guard base with his family and taking
pictures in front of the planes to indicate where the
(22:44):
bombs would go. The final gift was when the National
Guard had an open house on the base, so I
brought my kids in to look at the planes when
right up to the blades, took pictures of them, and
that helps us to stay which is exactly where the
explosives was going to be located. To fund its efforts,
(23:05):
Los Mater's frequently robbed major corporations. In fact, before the
West Harford success, the group made at least four attempts
at robbing Wells Fargo armored vehicles in Puerto Rico, the
last of which involved a number of heavily armed militants
who got away with five and eighty seven thousand dollars
(23:26):
in cash and checks before shooting and killing the driver.
While the money from these robberies helped, the group kept
many members on its payroll and needed cash for salaries,
so after recruiting Victor Harrina, they jumped at the Wells
Fargo opportunity. There's no way to really know the complete
(23:47):
or even true story of how Los MACHOs first connected
with Victor he Rena, but in the Last American Colony documentary,
Wan tells his version about how he met Victor. The
sky approached me and he says, you know, he's working
on an armored truck and he transports between seven to
(24:07):
ten million dollars every Monday, and he wants to donate
it to the struggle. It's like, whoa, it's almost too
good to be true. Six weeks after the West Harford heist,
Los Mao's grew even Boulder. Hours after they fired the
(24:31):
law rocket on the FBI's federal building in San Juan,
a woman phoned the local Associated Press offices on behalf
of Los Macha Tero's taking credit for the attack. What
she said was launched in support of the people of
Grenada at the height of the US invasion. There here's
reporter Ed Mahoney one Cigaris. You know, protests about this
(24:57):
being a non violent situation that wasithstanding. The FBI at
a different point of view. They thought it was very violent,
and they thought there was a lot of property damage.
And you know, there was aqua ducts getting blown up,
their bombard cars getting ripped off, the thanks getting knocked off,
there were saras getting shot, there were jet planes getting
blown up. I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on.
(25:18):
And you know, somebody in Washington said, you know something,
we can't let this continue to go down, and stop it.
However careful It's soldiers tried to be Mistakes like the
one Los Macha Teros made after firing the law rocket
were costly. Take for example, that seemingly inconsequential parking ticket
found in a car near the Federal building. That one
(25:40):
scrap of paper set off a chain of events that
eventually led to the FBI surveying Philiberto Ohada Rios's car
and a number of Los Macha terrorist is safe houses.
Pilaberto was on everybody's top ten list because you know,
Philiberto was a member Boma to Charter, member of the
(26:02):
Cuban Director in General with intelligence, So that got everybody's
at catching. It was in April when federal agents obtained
the warrant to go inside one of the safe houses.
There they found dozens of internal Machtero's documents, including code
(26:22):
names for various operatives and proof of a relationship with
the Cuban government. It was more than enough to justify
installing wire taps. And then those conversations. They learned about
the group's involvement in the Wells Fargo robbery, and heard
conversations between Wan and Philip Berto discussing whether to smuggle
(26:43):
Victor's fiancee, Anna Soto out of the US and into
Cuba as they had promised Victor from the start. They're
talking about trying to smuggle Victor into Cuba so they
can be together again. You know, the Cubans are saying
to forget about him. You know, what do you think
we're running here? You know, this isn't some kind of
(27:05):
lonely hearts that we've got going over here. The wire
tapped conversations would also highlight the ideological differences in the organization,
as we saw with Wells Fargo, Los Macha. Taro's weren't
shy about taking credit for their work, but how and
when to seek out the press became a major point
(27:25):
of contention within the organization. Should they send money to
local publications, When was the right time to take credit
for the heist? Most importantly, who should have access to
all that stolen cash? They split up the money, But
what happens was Casper didn't have a lot of money,
but he gave him guns, and he gave him trading,
(27:47):
and he gave him encouragement, and he gave him support,
and he gave him back up. I think the money
went to Cuba on the plane with Victor. And in
the final analysis, they said, is our money? And they
ast us at one money and they said the money
at we still we said, when you could have it,
that we're going to take half of it. And that
(28:08):
caused a lot of adja among the macha tarots because hey,
we stole the money. It's our money. But money, especially
stolen money, changes everything, particularly as Ed Mahoney explains, for
folks planning big things for the cash. But they were
gonna launch diplomatic initiatives with the insurgents of nic owaugu
(28:31):
Or and El salad Or. They're going to finance revolutions
and said, and these people were kind of crazy with
their ideas and being doctor near Maoists and Marxists. They kept,
you know, beautiful notes that really internal discussion and the
date they ever had, and there was a lot of
the scent and disappointment that they didn't get to keep
(28:52):
all their money because the Cubans took halfol it or
Castor took cabinet. There was actually some conversation from Philiberto saying, hey, buddies,
love with it, all right, what are we gonna do
about it? We're gonna attack you. But but forget about it.
They got the money. They got the money. That's the
way it goes. Here's former FBI agent Bob Hybel. Again,
(29:13):
what the money did was corrupted the man who had
them break into different groups. Some wanted to keep the money.
They didn't want to send any more money to Cuba.
You had some of them who had access to the
money and began to spend the money. My source in
the organization agrees, he said. By late nineteen four, the
group had started to fracture. Even publicity efforts like the
(29:35):
toy giveaway on three Kings, they became controversial in a
point of contention. They wanted to own it, and they
wanted to create the impression of being a group that
you know, looked out for the poor, just to get
their name out. Lo Sma Terros wanted to own it,
(29:58):
and they did. But all that talk about the money,
how to spend it, when to admit they've taken it
now those discussions would have major consequences and forced the
first domino in a long line to topple over next
(30:20):
time a White Eagle, The FBI raids began after dawn
in San Juan and nearby cities. Eleven people were rounded
up in Puerto Rico, Another was arrested in Dallas, one
more in Boston. Things fall Apart. White Eagle is written
and executive produced by me Em William Phelps and I
(30:41):
Heart executive producer Christina Everett. Additional writing by our supervising producer,
Julia Weaver. Our associate producer and script supervisor is Darby Masters,
Audio editing and mixing by Christian Bowman. Our series theme
forms Regal or Grand is written by Aaron Offer. Thanks
to Arlene Santana and Will Pearson at I Heart Radio,
(31:04):
and a very special thank you to Northern Light Productions
and Bester Cram for allowing us to use clips from
the documentary The Last American Colony, which is available to
stream on demand. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
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