Fugitive on FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list arrested in U.K.

Daniel Andreas San Diego, one of the FBI’s most wanted terror suspects, has been arrested in Wales, U.S. authorities said Tuesday.

The FBI said it coordinated with U.K. authorities to arrest San Diego, who has been wanted in connection with two animal rights-related bombings in Northern California in 2003. He was put on the Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2009.

“Daniel San Diego’s arrest after more than 20 years as a fugitive for two bombings in the San Francisco area shows that no matter how long it takes, the FBI will find you and hold you accountable,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement announcing the arrest. “There’s a right way and a wrong way to express your views in our country, and turning to violence and destruction of property is not the right way.”

The U.K. National Crime Agency said that San Diego was arrested in Conwy, a town near Wales’ northern coast. He was arrested by officers from the agency’s Joint International Crime Center at a property in a rural area next to a woodland, an agency spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News.

San Diego allegedly planted two bombs at the offices of Chiron Inc. in Emeryville, California, in August 2003. The first bomb detonated early in the morning. The second, which was set to detonate an hour after the initial blast and may have been meant to kill or injure first responders according to the FBI, was found and cleared before it could go off.

A month later, San Diego allegedly planted another bomb at a company in Pleasanton, California. That bomb was wrapped in nails, the FBI said, but no one was injured when it went off.

A federal arrest warrant was issued for San Diego in October 2003, but he disappeared before he could be taken into custody. A federal grand jury indicted San Diego with two counts of destroying or attempting to destroy property with explosives and two counts of use of a destructive device in a crime of violence in 2004.

San Diego was considered armed and dangerous during the two decades he went uncaptured. He had ties to animal rights extremist groups, the FBI said. 

San Diego made his first court appearance on Tuesday as extradition proceedings began to return him to the United States, the National Crime Agency said. He was ordered to remain in custody.

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