FBI arrests 'Freedom Fighter Bandit'
ATLANTA - The FBI has arrested a 25-year-old woman who is believed to be Georgia's "Freedom Fighter Bandit."
Officials say that Nilsa Marie Urena was taken into custody in Tennessee after she robbed a credit union near Nashville on Saturday morning.
"We knew she was never going to stop and this would keep continuing, so, getting her off the streets is a big, it's a big arrest for us," said Kevin Rowson with the FBI.
The FBI said her mistake this time was her mode of transportation.
"She took the car service to the bank and left in that car service from that bank. Crossville PD was able to track down from the information from that car service," said Rowson.
Utena is suspected of being responsible for at least 10 bank robberies in Georgia. She was last credited for a robbery in Dallas, Georgia in late January.
"She's been dubbed the ‘Freedom Fighter Bandit.’ Because whenever she goes in she passes a note or tells the teller that she's robbing the bank for some social cause," Kevin Rowson, spokesperson for the FBI Atlanta Field Office, told FOX 5 after her last suspected robbery.
Rowson said that Urena changed up her appearance and would often go to the banks with different male accomplices.
"In every robbery, she's used accomplices, so we believe she's recruiting these male accomplices online somehow. But we don't believe they're the same ones every time," said Rowson.
Two of those suspected accomplices have been arrested for a robbery in Loganville on Jan. 19, but the FBI said they didn't give the agency enough information to find Urena at the time.
There's currently no information on Urena's charges.