Daniel Andreas San Diego faces extradition after 21 years on run

A suspected double bomber on the FBI’s most needed record who vanished for 21 years is due in courtroom this week to resolve if he will probably be despatched again to the US to face trial.

The FBI consider Daniel Andreas San Diego has hyperlinks to animal rights extremist teams and is their prime suspect for a sequence of bombings within the San Francisco Bay Space in 2003.

Former FBI brokers have mentioned there have been “missed alternatives” to arrest the 47-year-old earlier than he vanished and declare they discovered a suspected “bomb-making manufacturing unit” in his deserted automotive after what detectives known as a 65-mile (104km) rush-hour chase in California.

Mr San Diego was discovered 5,000 miles (8,000km) away in a cottage in north Wales last year.

Mr San Diego, who had a $250,000 (£199,000) bounty on his head, faces a five-day extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates Courtroom in London on Monday to seek out out if the UK will hand him over to the US to reply a federal arrest warrant.

The previous fugitive, the primary born-and-raised American on the FBI’s most needed terrorist record, has been indicted by US prosecutors for maliciously damaging and destroying by the use of an explosive after two separate assaults in 2003.

Animal rights extremist group Revolutionary Cells – Animal Liberation Brigade claimed duty for the assaults on companies they believed had hyperlinks with organisations that examined merchandise on animals.

Former FBI Particular Agent David Smith was a part of a particular operations group that had been watching Mr San Diego.

“He was outstanding by being unremarkable,” Mr Smith, one of many bureau’s high surveillance specialists, advised the BBC.

“He was comparatively younger and regular, there was nothing to counsel this man was beginning to look violent. We by no means bought any indication he was conscious of us.”

The FBI felt it had sufficient intelligence to counsel Mr San Diego was its prime suspect and thought it was him that planted the units that detonated a month aside.

However supervisory particular agent Andrew Black, a part of the FBI’s counter-terrorism media crew, recalled: “The US Lawyer’s Workplace and case brokers had been making a call whether or not to arrest him now or develop extra data.

“The hope was he’d lead us to different members of this animal rights group that had been utilizing violence to advertise their agenda.”

Two bombs exploded at a biotechnology company in Emeryville, close to Oakland, USA, on 28 August 2003, with investigators believing the second bomb was planted to focus on first responders.

Then a bomb strapped with nails exploded at a dietary merchandise firm in Pleasanton, 30 miles (48km) east of the primary blast, on 26 September 2003. No-one was injured in both bombing.

The FBI’s former surveillance specialists had been advised Mr San Diego was developed as a agency suspect and had been requested to look at him with an “arrest being imminent”.

“We had been taking a look at somebody who we expect has carried out a number of bombings and a home terrorist,” recalled Mr Smith.

Mr Smith and his former colleague Clyde Foreman, a former supervisory particular agent, recall urging their colleagues to make the arrest as soon as he had been recognized as the principle suspect.

Mr Black, an agent of 27 years, added: “Pretty much as good as you may be, the longer you keep surveillance finally they’ll discover one thing uncommon and get spooked.

“There was frustration they weren’t given the inexperienced mild to arrest him as they mentioned there may be potential if he leaves, he is going to have the ability to detonate further bombs.”

The day earlier than Mr San Diego went off the FBI’s radar, Mr Smith was hiding in camouflage outdoors his residence.

Hours after Mr Smith and the FBI’s surveillance specialists went off shift, he mentioned Mr San Diego made a run for it with detectives in pursuit.

“Nearly from the time he got here out of his home, he was appearing frantically,” recalled Mr Smith.

“His driving patterns modified. The place he was going, he was driving erratically which is typical of somebody attempting to evade surveillance.”

Brokers mentioned he drove south from his residence in Sebastopol, Sonoma County, weaved previous commuters, by way of tunnels and over toll bridges in an hour-long motorway chase that resulted in downtown San Francisco.

Not even the FBI’s spy planes may maintain eyes on their goal as San Francisco’s notorious fog blocked their view as Mr San Diego slipped the web.

Mr San Diego left his automotive with the engine nonetheless working, at a busy metropolis centre junction subsequent to a subway station, and wasn’t seen once more.

“The crew that adopted him had been pondering he parked the automotive and went a number of blocks up the road to a location close by, both identified to the animal rights group or he had a reference to,” recalled Mr Smith, an FBI agent of 33 years.

“I requested ‘did anybody see him go in or is anybody watching that place proper now?’ They did not.

“The automotive was parked in a bus zone subsequent to the subway and we mentioned ‘we expect he is gone’.”

Mr Foreman felt the identical.

“We knew he was within the wind and it will be actually troublesome to seek out him,” he recalled.

“The case squad was working underneath the idea that San Diego was utilizing a residence for his bomb making.

“When he deserted his automotive, we discovered his bomb-making lab was within the trunk of his automotive.”

Mr Smith watched because the boot opened and admitted for a detective, it was “every little thing you ever needed”.

“Had we identified that, he’d have actually been arrested days prior,” he added.

“It was validating to say there it was. We felt assured that this was the man instantly. We had been very skilled brokers and knew a suspect after we noticed one.

“It was positively a missed alternative.”

The double bombing got here two years after the 9/11 attacks and the US was on excessive alert, so division chief Mr Foreman was of the view: “After getting any person recognized, arrest him.”

Mr San Diego was a pc community specialist born in Berkeley, California, and introduced up in an higher middle-class space of the San Francisco Bay Space. His father was a metropolis supervisor.

The FBI labored on monitoring Mr San Diego for years after his disappearance, watching household and pals to see if they might lead brokers to him. However the scent went chilly. They believed he had in all probability fled to central or South America.

Mr San Diego was indicted within the US District Courtroom in 2004 and the FBI thought of him armed and harmful.

Then, after 21 years of nothing and each Mr Smith and Mr Foreman retiring from the bureau, they heard one in all their most infamous fugitives had been detained within the UK after being present in an remoted cottage on a north Wales hillside.

The UK’s Nationwide Crime Company (NCA) and counter-terror police swooped in November 2024, arresting Mr San Diego who had been utilizing the alias Danny Webb within the Conwy valley, close to the market city of Llanrwst.

“I consider he had some assist – you are not chasing Jason Bourne,” mentioned Mr Foreman.

“He was not a talented intelligence officer. He needed to have assist.”

The FBI mentioned it could not remark in regards to the attainable missed alternatives to arrest Mr San Diego.

However on the time of his arrest, FBI Director Christopher Wray mentioned: “Daniel San Diego’s arrest after greater than 20 years as a fugitive for 2 bombings within the San Francisco space exhibits that regardless of how lengthy it takes, the FBI will discover you and maintain you accountable.”

Mr San Diego, who’s being held on the excessive safety Belmarsh Jail in London, has declined to remark.