1998 Bank of America Robbery - Aftermath

Aftermath

Not long after the robbery had taken place the media began covering the story and giving descriptions and broadcasting and printing images of the robbers. This was, of course, a problem for Guarino.

Soon the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had Melvin Folk in custody, he was not sure if Folk knew his surname, but he would have known Gillette's and if Gillette was apprehended he could choose to portray Guarino as the mastermind and lighten his own sentence.

The fault was that Folk and Reed had returned to their old neighborhoods and as soon as a $26,000 reward for catching the thieves became available people were identifying Reed with vigor. He was arrested, after identification by a retired New York Police Department (NYPD) detective who knew him, at a friend's house, on 20th Street, Brooklyn.

Soon afterward Gillette was travelling on an Amtrak train and was observed by another passenger as behaving strangely. He was chain-smoking and producing lots of cash, so the concerned passenger informed Amtrak security. As the train pulled into Albuquerque, New Mexico he was approached by security and asked a few questions. He produced a Green Bay Packers jacket with the name George Grillo attached, he told the agent that he was from New York and was going to San Bernardino, he consented to a sniffer-dog search of his property and cabin. Inside his duffel bag Amtrak Agent John Salzar discovered a lot of money and an ID with the name Richard Gillette. Gillette failed to explain the money and as such it was confiscated. Agent Salzar didn't arrest Gillette immediately and returned to his radio car and searched under the name Richard Gillette on the database of criminals, it revealed that he was wanted by the FBI for questioning. Agent Salzar returned to Gillette's cabin, only to find that he had disappeared in his absence.

In Albuquerque a street-by-street search was conducted, a waitress pointed him out in a bar called Famous Sam's, but he ran outside, via a back door. The FBI tracked him to a nearby hotel and he was arrested at approximately 8.30 p.m. January 16, 1998, for participating in the Bank of America robbery.

Although the FBI had the three robbers in custody, they concluded that the men didn't have the intelligence or initiative to pull off such a heist and began searching for a culprit. This was a serious dilemma for Guarino; he knew that Gillette was liable to inform on him, because he was being detained in a New Mexico jail cell.

Guarino met with his insider, Salvatore, and they had a problem aside from the three robbers, Salvatore had spent money in anticipation of receiving his payment, amounting to $50,000 on home improvements. He had purchased these improvements on credit card and his bills were coming, so he needed the money to pay off his credit card bills. Guarino had similar problems, he owed a violent member of New York's Gambino crime family $40,000. As well as the Gambino, named 'Joey Smash', mobsters all over New York were looking for ways to get hold of some of Guarino's money.

Guarino had some hope, though; a man named Jimmy Gallo offered to launder the foreign currency and return it to Guarino in fully cleansed, untraceable U.S. dollars, but he was charging 50% of the amount laundered. Guarino refused.

Richie Gillette was becoming a serious problem for Guarino; Gillette's cousin was ringing up Guarino and asking for money. Guarino thought that if he gave Gillette some money it might stop him from informing, but Guarino thought he might inform anyhow and then the money would have been wasted.

Before Guarino could figure out what to do he was at home, with his wife, at his Staten Island home, when two Federal Agents came and took him to the FBI HQ in New York.

Following his arrest, Guarino agreed to become an FBI informant on the DeCavalcante mafia family.