NO BONNIE & CLYDE HERE
Today’s bank robberies are high risk, low gain — and often done spur of the moment to get cash for drugs
Fidel Castillo drew a pistol and ordered everyone to the floor. He wanted more money. Terrified bank employees and customers dropped to the tile.
The 45-year-old had done this before.
The FBI says it was one of eight bank robberies Castillo committed in a five-month span.
Castillo’s spree came at a time when New Mexico was at a fiveyear-high, with 56 such crimes last year, 47 of those in Albuquerque.
In 2011, the total also reached 56 but then it plunged to 20 in 2012. Since then, the number has declined steadily.
That’s in contrast to national bank robbery numbers, which have plateaued and hovered around 4,000 per year since 2012.
The crime is often spurred by drug use — particularly in the Land of Enchantment — and offers little reward at a huge risk.
Robert McCrie, a professor at the John Jay Institute in New York, said modern day cases are far removed from the dramatic, frightening and dangerous acts committed in the early 20th century by household names, such as John Dillinger, “Baby-Face” Nelson, and Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.
“They’re not shootouts that we’ve experienced in the past . ... That’s really gone out of style,” he said.
Less violent today
Although Castillo is charged in two “take over ”style robberies — in which the suspect orders everyone
around, usually with a weapon — it is seldom seen.
McCrie, an urban historian specializing in criminal justice for 47 years, said that nowadays bank robbers often act without serious violence or intimidation.
According to the FBI, of the more than 4,000 bank robberies committed nationally in 2016, only 37 resulted in injuries and seven ended in death for the robber. Over half were committed by demand, either spoken or written, and less than 300 involved a “takeover.”
On most occasions, McCrie said, a note is passed and no guns are shown.
“These are loners, for the most part,” he said.
National FBI crime statistics from 2016 show that 40 percent of the perpetrators are drug users. FBI Special Agent Paul Wright said that in New Mexico, it’s more like nine out of 10.
“Without exaggeration,” said Wright, FBI bank robbery coordinator. “Here in Albuquerque, it’s going to be heroin or meth every time, or both.”
Drug use driver
“This is the way of getting cash for a physical need that is very compelling,” McCrie said, adding that repeat offenders are common. “They’ll stay with what works for them.”
According to the FBI, nearly 30 percent of bank robbers in 2016 had previously been convicted, either locally or federally, of bank robbery, burglary or larceny.
In the criminal world, they are not given much “cred,” or admiration, for their work, McCrie said.
“There’s nothing intellectual or daring about what it is that they do,” he said. “It’s not considered a smart kind of crime.”
McCrie said such robberies are often “spur of the moment,” when the thieves need fast cash, and are not considering the consequences.
Wright said there is often big risk and little reward in the crime, where most suspects get away with at most a couple of grand but can face up to 20 years in federal prison.
“It’s a desperate thing to do,” he said. “You know you’re being filmed, you have to know there’s a higher likelihood you’re going to get caught.”
Average take
On average, they walk away with between $1,000 and $2,000 in New Mexico, but some may get only a couple of hundred or nothing at all.
“Sometimes people will chicken out,” he said.
Despite the small “take,” Wright said, almost every bank robbery is federally prosecuted — which often leads to a stiffer sentence than with state charges — and all have ended in prison time.
There is no minimum sentence, but a bank robber can serve up to life in prison. It all depends on the details, he said.
For instance, committing the crime with a gun in your pocket will get you at least five years, with a gun in your hand at least seven, and if you pull the trigger, at least a decade behind bars.
With three or more violent or drug felonies already on the individual’s record, a robber is considered “three strikes, you’re out” and can be put away for life, Wright said.
“Those are the kind of people that really end up getting smacked in federal court,” he said.
Guns add years
Men like 37-year-old Christopher Baum, who was sentenced last week to 20 years in prison for robbing several northeast Albuquerque banks in just over a week’s time.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted Baum, who had already served almost nine years behind bars for two previous robbery convictions, under the “worst of the worst” initiative, which the U.S. Attorney’s office says targets offenders for federal prosecution based on criminal history “with the goal of removing repeat offenders from communities in New Mexico for as long as possible.”
Baum’s spree in 2016 began on Aug. 24 and came to an end Aug. 30, when he drew a pistol on a bank teller at a Bank of the West on Juan Tabo NE.
The FBI says Albuquerque police followed the getaway vehicle from the bank into the International District, where it stopped at a home, and Baum fled on foot as detectives surrounded the area. A detective arrested him after a foot chase.
The severe punishments for robbing a bank with a gun are well known “on both sides of the counter,” McCrie said. For that reason, it is a relatively safe crime, physically, in which robbers are hesitant to make a scene and bank tellers are often instructed to comply.
“Take care of the notepasser, give him or her a little money and just get them out of the bank,” he said.
Majority get caught
Despite the menagerie of disguises they use — including construction outfits, bandages, wigs and fake noses — around two-thirds of all bank robbers in New Mexico are caught, Wright said.
He said that the public can often be the most valuable tool in catching them, although many people are reluctant to say anything.
“It’s really hard to do something like rob a bank and keep your mouth shut about it,” he said. But “there are a lot of people who know who did it that won’t come forward.”
Wright said that’s because they like or sympathize with the robber, or are intimidated by the person.
“The biggest obstacle is people unwilling to be a snitch,” he said.
Such was not the case for Castillo, who wasn’t exactly flying under the radar.
When the FBI caught him, thanks to a confidential informant, he was driving a stolen car and “coming down” from a four-day meth binge.
The arrest came just two days after the bureau went public with a $5,000 reward for information.
According to court documents, two informants came forward, giving authorities the address where they could find Castillo.
At that address, the FBI found not only Castillo, but also the black handgun he is accused of using during two robberies.