The FBI announced on Tuesday that one of the bureau’s “most wanted terrorists” was arrested by officials in Wales for alleged bombings in San Francisco in 2003.
Daniel Andreas San Diego, considered also one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives, was arrested Monday in a rural area in northern Wales, the National Crime Agency said. He was ordered held in custody after appearing Tuesday in Westminster Magistrates’ Court and faces extradition.
San Diego, 46, is charged in the United States with planting two bombs that exploded about an hour apart in the early morning of Aug. 28, 2003, on the campus of a biotechnology company in Emeryville, California. He’s also accused of setting off another bomb with nails strapped to it at a nutritional products company in Pleasanton, California, a month later.
“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. “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.”
In 2009, San Diego, of Berkeley, California, became the first person suspected of domestic terrorism to be added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List. A reward of $250,000 (200,000 pounds) was offered for information leading to his arrest.
The bulletin stated that San Diego “has ties to animal rights extremist groups” and is “known to follow a vegan diet,” meaning he eats no food containing animal products or meat. It added that he previously worked as a Linux operating system networking specialist.
San Diego grew up in an upper-middle-class suburb of Marin County north of San Francisco. His father was the city manager of nearby Belvedere, a wealthy enclave. The FBI has also said San Diego worked as a computer network specialist, was a skilled sailor, and was known to carry a handgun.
An archived FBI page, announcing that San Diego was added to the domestic terrorism list, said he was involved in a group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty and was “wanted for his alleged involvement in bombing two biotech facilities that did business with Huntingdon Life Sciences, a company that conducts animal experimentation for the medical and pharmaceutical industries..”
“Animal rights and environmental extremism pose a significant domestic terror threat,” the notice said at the time, adding that at the time, such attacks were responsible for 1,800 criminal acts and tens of millions of dollars in damages.
A group called Revolutionary Cells-Animal Liberation Brigade claimed responsibility for the bombings, citing the companies’ ties to Huntingdon Life Sciences. Huntingdon was a target of animal rights extremists because of its work with experimental drugs and chemicals on animals while under contract for pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and other companies.
Earlier this year, House Republicans, including Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), the incoming Trump administration national security adviser, announced they would investigate the “potential for eco-terrorist attacks” inside the United States, namely against energy infrastructure.
Their probe was launched due to a “spike in calls for violence by radical eco-terrorists on U.S. college campuses and across the globe,” said the lawmakers, requesting a briefing from Wray in April. It’s not clear if Wray eventually provided the House lawmakers with the briefing they sought.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times