Alfredo Rios Galeana: Mexico's Public Enemy Number One

Army Sergeant. Ex Policeman. Army Parachutist. Nightclub Singer. Bank Robber. Kidnapper. All this and more was Alfredo Rios Galeana, pain in the ass for the Mexican authorities for years and admired by much of Mexican lower class society.

Born into poverty in 1951 in Arenal de Alvarez, Guerrero state, Alfredo Rios Galeana lost his father when he was only one year old. He left with his mother to Acapulco where she had to work hard now as a widowed mom, Rios Galeana didnt finish school. Soon after he and his mother moved to Mexico City.

When he turned 18 years old he joined the Mexican army. Due to his body build and height and natural proficiency for handling firearms and explosives he was made Sergeant by age 22. Using his combat skills learned in the military along with his knowledge of handling submachine guns and pistols, he started to rob stores and homes and a bank here and there. Pretty soon he ran afoul of the feared Secret Service police, who luckily for him, seeing how Rios Galeana was a bad ass, they employed him and soon after that he became a Police Officer for Mexico state (which borders the Federal District).

Despite Rios having a criminal record and being an army deserter he became policeman and under the protection of the Directorate of Federal Security, DFS (Mexico's CIA) he was allowed to keep doing his robberies. He started to make up his gang and together they would rent homes or apartments near or in front important bank branches all over the capital city and surrounding states, stake out the place then hit it.

During the 70's he was Mexico's most feared outlaw. Always armed with a machine gun and holding a grenade, he robbed dozens of banks in several states, not hesitating to shoot any cocky guard or policeman who tried to be a hero. But he wasnt all a mean bad ass bank robber ala John Dillinger. He had his soft side.

He would sometimes anonymously send the widows of the guards and cops he killed cash money for all their troubles.

One time during Christmas week, dressed as a businessman, Rios Galeana convinced a bank to open after hours, so he could give "his friend, the manager" a Christmas gift. Once inside, Rios and 4 others robbed the place.

Everytime he fell in the hands of the law, he would escape. Ever so vain he would comb his hair and flash a smile for the waiting reporters. He would joke and put his arm around the cops and jailers. So cocky and arrogant was he that sometimes he would announce by what date he would escape. And escape he would. In 1974 he fled the Tula, Hidalgo jail. Months later he was caught and sent to Santa Martha Acatitla prison in Mexico City and again he escaped.

When he wasnt busy looting banks, going on wild high speed chases and shooting it out with the cops, he had another passion: Singing.

He had plastic surgery done, he would don a Charro suit, and under the pseudonym Alfredo del Rio, he would sing at cock fight rings, nightclubs and he even recorded a LP singing his favorite ranchera songs.

In 1981 he once again was apprehended and Public Enemy number One was paraded in front of the Mexican press by none other than notorious Mexico City police chief Arturo Durazo. An arrogant Rios Galeana sat nonchalant in a chair and regaled the press with stories of his exploits, vowing to not stay in prison for long. He grew tired of jail and once again busted out, just as promised.

After the disastrous gas explosions in San Juan Ixhuatepec in 1984, Alfredo Rios Galeana donated thousands of dollars in cash to those affected by the blasts. In 1985 he was once again arrested and sent to Mexico City's Reclusorio Sur prison.

On November 22, 1986, an armed commando made up of men and women wielding machine guns stormed the prison courtroom where Rios Galeana was and tied everyone up. Using a hand grenade they blasted a whole in the wall and escaped. Once again Alfredo Rios Galeana was gone. This time for good. It was said his wife Yadhira led the armed commando that busted him and several others out of Reclusorio Sur.

But not for long. Alfredo Rios Galeana might of been a criminal mastermind but his skills faltered in his old age.

On July 12, 2005, after trying to renew his California drivers license near Los Angeles, Alfredo Rios Galeana, now known as Arturo Montoya was identified and after weeks of surveillance was arrested by ICE on charges of entering the US illegally.

His neighbors described Arturo Montoya, whom they had known as for 12 years, as a quiet religious man who ran his own janitorial service. He was active in church and loved to sing spiritual songs and show religious movies in his front yard for all to enjoy. Everyone was shocked to find out they lived next door to a notorious killer and bank robber.

He had been ID'd by his fingerprints that were still on record at Mexico's Attorney Generals office. He was deported over the border where he was met by a group of Mexican AFI agents armed to the teeth, put on a plane and sent to Mexico City where he would be charged with six murders and dozens of robberies and destruction of federal property, kidnapping, extortion and illegal arms possession.

Upon arrival in the capital the Federal District government said they didnt want him in any of the cities' prisons, due to Galeanas afinity for escaping and blowing things up.

They sent him to La Palma Maximum Security prison where he told the press eagerly awaiting Mexico's Public Enemy Number One, that he was a born again Christian, had found Jesus, was sorry for killing and robbing banks and all his loot from the holdups had been spent.

Songs were written in honor of Rios Galeana. Here is the translation of one sung by El Puma de Sinaloa, Fredy Bojorquez in 1990.

The Bank Robber

I am the bank robber
That the law is looking for
Because robbing from the rich
Gives me great pleasure
They search for me in Jalisco
In Sonora and Monterrey.

10 armored trucks
in Sinaloa state I robbed
Also in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez
I "visited" several banks.
From the Federal District's jail
I recently escaped.

So that you can catch me again
Its going to be rather hard
for I carry good machine guns
and a legal passport.
They call me Rios Galeana
at your service.

When you have more millions
I will pay you another visit
Let me "borrow" more millions
So I can help you spend them.

Alfredo Rios Galeana
My name you wont soon forget.
I send out a greeting
and to my friends I met in jail
To all the cops and agents
of the Federal District.

24 Hours of Terror: The Los Mochis Bank Heist

Onlookers crowd the armored truck where the assailants escaped on April 21, 1988 in Los Mochis. 4 people were killed, 12 injured in the notorious bank heist.

Wednesday April 20, 1988
Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico

Its 12:25 pm. Inside the Banco Nacional de Mexico (Banamex) bank long lines of customers await to deposit or withdraw money.

A young woman named Rosi Padilla stands near the glass doors, smiling and greeting the customers who enter the bank and informing them of the new Invermático ATM machines that Banamex will soon be adding to this branch.

On the other side of the building, bank co manager Manuel Sandoval is helping a customer.

It seems like everything is peaceful; customers and bank employees proceed with their transactions. More than 50 people fill the building, busy as many take advantage of their lunch hours to go to the bank.

5 minutes later, the peace of another routine business day at the bank ends. All hell breaks loose.

Exactly at 12:30 pm, 6 men enter the bank violently brandishing guns and yell "This is a hold up! Nobody move!"

Only a few listen to the robbers. The rest of the people run away, desperately searching for an exit; the men are blocking the main doors. They stop running when they hear a gunshot from a .38 caliber pistol.

"Nobody freak out!" yells the man who pulled the trigger, shooting his gun in the air. The rest of the gunmen take small groups of customers and employees and push them into the restrooms.

Rosi Padilla the smiling cashier at the door is still standing, petrified as she sees the men yelling and threatening to kill anyone who gets in their way.

One of the robbers notices that she doesn't move, looks at her in the face and shoots her in the chest. The young woman falls backwards spitting blood and with her bright eyes wide open as if asking "Why me?".

The bank robbery has claimed its first victim. The robber doesn't flinch as he watches Rosi die on the marble floor.

The story being told is real. Its the story of the most violent and dramatic bank heist in the history of the state of Sinaloa. For 24 hours, Mexico and the world watched as 6 men held dozens of hostages, threatening to kill them and blow up the bank. The ending to the ordeal was an embarrassment to a city and to a whole state. It happened when future Presidential candidate Francisco Labastida Ochoa was governor of the state and Ernesto Alvarez Nolasco was mayor of Ahome, Sinaloa.

It was planned on March 25. That day, Mario Valdez, Ivan Camarena, Ramon Terrazas "The Frog", Gilberto Valenzuela, Catarino Felix and Guillermo Gonzalez met at a house to plan the heist.

After agreeing on the type of weapons to use, they chose the date: April 20th. 12:30 pm, the time the Servicio Panamericano armored truck would make a drop at the bank.

After shooting Rosi that April afternoon, one of the robbers rushed to co manager Manuel Sandoval Rendon and grabbed him by the arm, pushing him towards the vault in the back of the building. Inside of the vault, millions of pesos awaited: the men guarding the vault had earlier picked up the money from the Bank teller stations and stashed it in the vault and the armored truck had made the deposit earlier than previously thought.

"Open the door!" one of the robbers screamed at Sandoval.

"I cant! The door opens from the inside!" Sandoval replied.

The robber in frustration proceeded to shoot the helpless co manager in the thigh and Sandoval fell to the floor in agony.

The managers agony was being watched by head cashier Raul Rendon from inside the vault via closed circuit monitor. However he couldn't do anything but watch. At the first gunshots, he had activated the robbery alarm and the vault door had automatically sealed itself. The door couldn't be opened.

By that time the Mexican Federal Judicial Police and Municipal Police had surrounded the bank and closed the streets around the building. Hidalgo Avenue, Guillermo Prieto St., Zaragoza St. and Independencia St. were shut down and no one could drive through.

The gunmen furious because they were now cornered with no money and no way out, they opted for taking the 60 plus customers and employees hostage.

Seeing that the situation grew worse by the minute, a young Mexican Red Cross worker named Marco Antonio Estrada tried to mediate with the robbers. He proposed letting everyone go and he would remain as their sole hostage. The robbers ignored him. Then all hell broke loose.

The police shot out a window on the corner of Guillermo Prieto St and Hidalgo Avenue and threw in a canister of tear gas. Then they opened fire. The gunmen holed up inside the bank returned fire and a shootout ensued.

The shooting only stopped when the robbers yelled to the police they would kill hostages if they didn't stop shooting at them. Then they called a local radio station and demanded an armored truck to escape in, cash and a helicopter to flee the state. If their demands were not met they would blow up the bank and everyone inside with sticks of dynamite they had tucked in their jeans or they would simply start executing hostages. "Were capable of anything, we're not afraid to die" one of the robbers told the radio station, his words broadcast throught the city and nation.

Minutes later as a show of good faith, the robbers released 3 hostages; manager Sandoval Rendon, the Red Cross Worker Marco Antonio Estrada and an off duty Judicial Policeman Roberto Soto Cruz.

But the three men had a tragic end. Upon walking out of the doors, they were met with a hail of bullets. The police, mistaking them for the gunmen, had opened fire. The bodies of the three hostages lay dead on the sidewalk in front of the bank while other hostages inside lay wounded by the shooting.

Overwhelmed by what was happening, Governor Labastida gave the order to comply with the robbers' demands. The order from the governor came precisely at the same time as a group of townspeople had gathered outside the bank and threatened to rush the building to protect the gunmen from the police!

It was Thursday April 21st at 12:40 pm when the violence finally ceased. By then the authorities and robbers had come to an agreement. They would trade the hostages for 3 Red Cross paramedics, Rosario Angulo, Jose Lopez and Santana Ortega, and they would be allowed to flee. Outside a Servicio Panamericano armored truck awaited the men.

National and International TV cameras were rolling as 5 robbers, wielding their guns and sacks of cash boarded the armored truck. The 6th robber lost himself among the crowd of onlookers and freed hostages.

Then something uncanny happened. The truck didnt start. No problem. The crowd of onlookers and townspeople pushed the truck up the street, four blocks until the truck started. A grateful robber stunned everyone by cracking open a door and tossing a fistful of cash to the jubilant crowd. The robbers abandoned the armored truck in the Vicente Guerrero neighborhood and fled on foot, aided supposedly by people who lived in the impoverished neighborhood.

After the heist, the city and nation asked itself. Who was responsible for the slaying of the hostages? The Chief of police of Los Mochis, Joel Velasco Flores blamed the gunmen. Others blamed the bumbling police.

Even though people mourned the deaths of four people that warm April day, Rosi Padilla's death was the most dramatic.

Nobody knew that April 20th would be the last day of her three month job contract at the Banamex bank.

Nobody also knew that months before, she had worked at the Banco Serfin bank on Leyva St. and had been a witness to a robbery at that bank. Two of the six men robbing the Banamex bank on April 20th had participated in the Serfin hold up and they recognized Rosi from before. That earned her a bullet to the chest.

Weeks later the robbers were arrested. One in a hospital and the rest were apprehended individually at their hideouts in Navojoa, Sonora. In 1990, the drama was brought to the Mexican big screen in "Bancazo en Los Mochis" (Heist in Los Mochis), starring well known Mexican soap opera actor Eduardo Yanez as one of the robbers. A corrido was also made, retelling the events at the bank.

21 years have passed since the violent robbery at Banamex in Los Mochis, but for the people involved, hostages and police alike, its a memory that will never go away for a simple reason. Too many innocent people died that day.

(with information from El Debate de Sinaloa newspaper)