Aguila Blanca

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 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, 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.

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 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 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

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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. 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

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 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 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, 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 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. 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 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. 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 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, 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 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 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, 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 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 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, 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, 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 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

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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,

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, 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

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 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 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 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 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, 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

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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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, 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 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,

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 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

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, 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.