Profile

Name: Victor Manuel Gerena (Victor Ortiz)
Aliases: Victor Ortiz
Sex: Male
Race: Hispanic
Age Now: 50
Height: 5'6\" - 5'7\"
Weight: 160 - 170 lbs.
Hair (Color, Description, Facial Hair): Brown\rCombs hair straight back, no part\rCan only grow a sparse mustache
Eyes (Color and Correction): Green\r Glasses
Other Physical Characteristics: Has striking green eyes
Wanted for: Bank Robbery, West Hartford, CT; Sep 12, 1983
Armed Robbery ; Sep 12, 1983
Theft from Interstate Shipment ; Sep 12, 1983

Locations

Last seen: West Hartford, CT Robbing a bank
Possible location: Puerto Rico West Hartford, CT Cuba
Last known: West Hartford, CT

Traits

Ethnic Puerto Rican, speaks Spanish
Speaks English with Spanish accent
Owns wire rim prescription glasses
Drinks lots of strong coffee
Lifts weights, jogs, plays racquetball
Dresses neatly, everything in place
Has precise, meticulous handwriting
Watches TV news, discusses politics
Was a paralegal assistant at the Puerto Rican Center for Justice in Hartford
Has worked as a machinist, truck driver, security guard, concessionaire, playground worker, aide at state capitol
Belongs to Los Macheteros, a Puerto Rican militant separatist group

Case Story

Elusive Bank Robber Lands On FBI's Top Ten List

Victor Gerena, one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, is wanted for the 1983 robbery of a Wells Fargo armored truck depot in West Hartford, Conn. The FBI says on September 12, 1983, Gerena took two of his fellow Wells Fargo employees hostage and escaped with $7 million. According to federal authorities, Gerena pulled a gun, tied up his hostages, and injected them with an unknown sleep-inducing substance.  Gerena then loaded the money into a rented Buick and fled to Massachusetts. The FBI says Gerena was recruited and trained for the robbery by Los Macheteros, a violent Puerto Rican independence movement. Agents state the Macheteros moved Gerena through Texas to Mexico in a trailer home, and then sent him to Cuba, where he may still be hiding. As a result of the FBI's intensive investigation into the robbery, 19 alleged Macheteros were indicted, resulting in numerous felony convictions. But 25 years later, Gerena remains on the loose, and his status as one of the FBI's most-wanted men proves that law enforcement officials won't give up until this thug is brought to justice.