Victor Manuel Gerena (born June 24, 1958) is an American wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for the armed robbery, in connection with the Los Macheteros group, of a Wells Fargo armored car facility. On May 14, 1984, he became the 386th fugitive to be placed on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. He remains at large and, on April 11, 2010, became the fugitive to have spent the most time on the list, surpassing Donald Eugene Webb. He is believed to have lived in Cuba, but his exact whereabouts and fate are unknown.
Gerena and his family, consisting of his mother, four brothers and one sister, moved to Hartford, Connecticut from Puerto Rico when Gerena was very young. He enjoyed wrestling, winning many tournaments; he also played American football. He was a good student, serving on the student council and was recommended to Trinity College.
In Puerto Rico, Machetero leaders Filiberto Ojeda Rios and Juan Segarra Palmer had heard of Gerena; Gerena’s mother’s background as a pro-independence advocate and his dislike of life in the army made him, in Ojeda Rios’ and Segarra Palmer’s eyes, a candidate to become a member of Los Macheteros. They flew to Hartford and convinced Gerena to help them with their cause by participating in the heist.
According to law enforcement authorities, on September 12, 1983, Gerena dropped off his girlfriend at City Hall, where she was to get a marriage license for the couple. He then went to his place of employment and spent the rest of the day with co-workers James McKeon and Timothy Girard. At some point Gerena then removed McKeon’s gun, handcuffed and tied up his two co-workers, and injected them with an unknown substance in order to further disable them. He put $7,000,000 in the trunk of a car, then left with the money. At an unknown point, Gerena transferred to another vehicle and disappeared.
Reward
The FBI reward for information leading to Gerena’s capture is $1,000,000 USD.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 23rd, 2010 at 1:47 pm and is filed under $1,000,000+, Connecticut, Wanted Fugitives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.