How FBI’s most wanted hid as ‘the IT guy’ in remote North Wales

Standing in the foothills of Mount Snowdon, with white peaks visible along the skyline and the River Conwy bulging below, it’s easy to imagine why someone would choose this beautiful corner of North Wales to hide.

“It’s stunning,” said 53-year-old Phil Charman, while out walking his Irish setter Roger.

“My sister always says it’s amazing when she comes here but it can be an unrelenting, hard lanscape.

“Sometimes it rains for weeks, in the winter it gets so cold because it’s so exposed.”

Mr Charman moved up here from West Sussex in 2021 to help look after his father-in-law but even after three years, and with family connections, he says it’s not necessarily easy to integrate into this rural community where many people speak Welsh as their first language.

“It’s quite an odd place, disconnected,” he mused.

“You don’t know a lot of people’s back story… for someone who doesn’t want to be recognised it’s perfect.”

It was here in Maenan, a parish high in the hills that is too small to even be described as a village, where armed officers from the National Crime Agency and North Wales police dramatically stormed a cottage on Monday and arrested 46-year-old Daniel Andreas San Diego.

He had been on the FBI’s “most wanted” list for more than 20 years over two bombing attacks in San Francisco, California, in 2003 which were allegedly carried out in the name of “animal rights”.

No one was injured but one of the bombs was strapped with nails and the FBI’s poster said San Diego should be considered “armed and dangerous”.

Some time after being named a suspect in July 2004, San Diego managed to give authorities the slip, leaving the US and entering the UK, where he appears to have been living under a false identity for a considerable length of time.

It is understood he has been using the name Danny Webb while living in the North West of England and North Wales and working as an IT specialist.

The success of his cover story was such that he has been able to secure well-paid jobs and buy at least one property, including the cottage where he was finally caught on Monday.

Aled Evans told the BBC he sold the property to San Diego last summer for £425,000, £15,000 over the asking price and paid for in cash.

“The day of the viewing he spent considerable time on the balcony looking at the view and that’s what sold it to him, apparently,” Mr Evans said.

When The i Paper visited San Diego’s former home, it was evident he had left, or rather been removed, in a hurry.

Through the glass front doors, a plate and fork remained visible on the coffee table next to a pile of computer games and the card game “Cards Against Humanity”.

Clothes were hanging on a drier, as was a wetsuit by the front door above piles of unopened post.

A black Seat Leon, believed to belong to San Diego, is parked up on the woodland track which leads to the cottage.

A neighbour, who did not want to give their name, said the car rarely moved and he had never had a conversation with San Diego, despite passing his house while walking his dog every morning.

“He kept to himself,” the neighbour said.

“Normally you see people, especially as I’m usually working outside. He never came and introduced himself. People say they thought he was Canadian.

“He never did anything to the house but I noticed that suddenly there was a lot of surveillance, cameras on the property.

“He would get logs delivered regularly and he put a wood shed in.”

The full details of San Diego’s life in the UK have yet to emerge but it is believed he had lived alone in a number of different locations in the Conwy county area of Wales recently, although one local believes they saw him driving back to his home with a woman in the passenger seat.

He is believed to have enjoyed mountain biking in the pine woodlands above his property and the FBI say he was expert in sailing.

Before he left the US he had a tattoo of burning hillsides in the centre of his chest with the words “It only takes a spark” printed in a semicircle below, and a single leafless tree rising from a road in the centre of his lower back.

Although San Diego’s cottage is off the beaten track, it is only a few miles from Llanwrst, a pretty town with a number of pubs, cafes and shops.

North Wales police even has a handful of officers stationed beside the library and one wonders whether San Diego ever strolled past, confident that his cover was never going to be blown.

David Hughes, who runs the Maenan Abbey Hotel, says his partner is one of the few people to have seen the fugitive in person, around a month ago while out walking his dog in the woods.

“When his picture came up on Facebook my partner said ‘that’s him’,” said Mr Hughes. “They didn’t speak, he just spotted him in the woods.

“Where he [San Diego] was living, it’s up away from the road you wouldn’t get people walking through, it’s quite isolated.

“I’m surprised he was here for a year without anybody really speaking to him though, it’s quite a tight little community.

“It will probably end up in a Netflix documentary.”

The FBI created its first “Most Wanted Terrorists” list in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks carried out by al-Qaeda.

The initial 22 suspects included Osama Bin Laden who was eventually killed by American forces in 2011.

San Diego was the first alleged “domestic terrorist” added to the list and the FBI has hailed his capture as a major success story.

“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,” said FBI director Christopher Wray.

“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.”

FBI San Francisco special agent-in-charge Robert K Tripp also paid tribute to “the invaluable support of our federal and international partners”, adding: “It is because of this collaborative effort that we are finally able to hold San Diego accountable for his alleged actions.”

San Diego appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court on Tuesday and was remanded in custody.

He is now expected to face extradition proceedings to send him back to the US.