in 2011 gerardo adnan cazeres
valenzuela nearly walked away with 4.3
million dollars in cash
usually it takes a considerable amount
of time to plan a heist like this but
valenzuela who was also known just as
gary casarez simply put millions of
dollars into a box
and just left the bank so how did
valenzuela drive away with such a huge
stash alone
after just a few months of planning gary
was a vault manager at key bank in
anchorage in the largest city in alaska
that probably tells you more than enough
as far as the heist is concerned
valenzuela had access to millions of
dollars that was not his
all he needed was a good plan and a
little bit of luck
to pull off what most people only dream
of
according to the us department of
justice the former vault manager was
looking for the upper hand against his
then employer
apparently the bank was going through
personnel changes
valenzuela thought that he would have
easily been
one of the people let go at that time
and that would have
effectively rendered him jobless and no
cash flow of course so valenzuela
decided to take things
into his own hands he took a shot at not
just securing his future but also
ensuring he got a little bit of revenge
at keybank for planning to put him out
of work
the plan that valenzuela had planned out
would have worked out perfectly
if it weren't for one tiny mistake
before valenzuela had even laid down the
groundwork for his heist he had hinted
his intentions to his girlfriend
according to the department of justice
report he told her that he could
just rob the bank easily there wasn't
anyone at the bank that was physically
watching over the vault
it was just video surveillance that was
an advantage on his part since it meant
he could slip away without having to
deal with anyone
else and because no one watched over the
vault
it was one of the big reasons he didn't
need any accomplices the day of the
crime
but that doesn't mean he didn't need a
few people here
and there in his grand scheme of thing
on july 8th of 2011
valenzuela was lucky to have a new
employee training under his wing
this was something that gave him the
perfect opportunity to pull off his
heist
this was because whenever the vault
needed to be opened
the standard operating procedure
required two people
on hand to open it however here's what
happened valenzuela trained the new
employee on various vault procedures
while he was training the new employee
valenzuela simply
eliminated the part about dual controls
over the vault
and it was just a few weeks later that
he realized he found that the two
loopholes the lack of both physical
surveillance
and dual control of the vault were all
he needed to
easily rob the keybank anchorage branch
on july 28th of 2011 valenzuela did a
test run he stole 30 thousand dollars
from the bank's fault
all without any problems with thirty
thousand dollars cash on hand
he went ahead and splurged most of it he
spent twenty four thousand dollars on a
private jet that flew him from anchorage
to seattle
this was where he met his girlfriend
after the big heist he had actually
already flown her out a couple days
before to seattle with the jet chartered
venezuela moved in for the perfect score
the big day was on july 29th which was a
friday back in 2011.
considering the hefty amount of cash he
planned to steal
valenzuela needed plenty of time that
meant staying late
and staying alone so he came up with a
plan he told key bank's branch manager
that he was supposed to be organizing an
ice cream social for customers that
night
and he'd stay later than usual to clean
up as well
the branch manager left for the night
without any suspicion with the bank
fault all to himself
valenzuela simply packed 4.3 million
dollars in cash
in three boxes and then just carted them
to his car
valenzuela then drove to the private
airport where the private jet was
waiting in anchorage and flew to seattle
but before he left the bank
he took care of one tiny detail he sent
the timer on the vault to lock for
six days the maximum allowable time so
no one would notice money was missing he
had also
mailed his and his girlfriend's phones
to new york
in order to throw off anyone that was
looking for them once they figured out
what happened
of course when the vault was finally
opened key bank employees discovered
that the vault was short on a huge
chunk of cash but by this time their
former vault manager was already
way across the border and he had no
plans of ever coming back
or ever being on the grid again in
seattle he bought a ford fusion and he
and his girlfriend drove to california
he also bought some protection
in the form of an ak-47 at this point
everything was going to plan for
valenzuela his final destination was
just getting to his uncle's place in
sonora mexico
this is where luck was not on his side
his uncle suggested that they take a bus
to his place instead of driving the
rough mexican roads
so they drove to tijuana and abandoned
the car they then bought bus tickets for
sonora
on what was the last trip for valenzuela
as a free man
on august 2nd of 2011 the bus was
stopped at a mexican checkpoint the
passengers were told to leave the bus
with their luggage and this was when
mexican authorities
looked inside his bag and discovered
millions of dollars
mexican police found 3.8 million dollars
when they arrested valenzuela in 2011
but didn't he steal 4.3 million dollars
we'll get to that in a bit but just like
that
valenzuela was arrested on allegations
of money laundering
and illegal arms possession he was also
charged with smuggling
these charges alone in mexico earned him
a seven year prison sentence
when he finally got out in 2018 it
wasn't over yet he still had to deal
with the us authorities if it wasn't for
a completely
random full search on a bus valenzuela
would most likely still
be hunted today really what should
have he done instead did he really need
to have gone to his
uncle's remote place somewhere in sonara
mexico
why did he need to see his uncle of
course
only valenzuela knows the motivation he
probably
should have avoided all remote areas in
mexico
at all costs we definitely liked his
choice
of buying a non-flashy getaway car in
the ford
fusion what he needed to do was stay on
the main roads and blend in as best he
could
valenzuela could have easily disappeared
if he did not attract attention
he also needed to do his research and
avoid all
areas with known checkpoints if he had
not gotten
caught with the random full search he
could have just laid low for a few
months off the grid
he would just go to a random big city in
mexico and
blend in with the locals if he had
planned his heist further out
he could have taken the time to buy fake
documents and ids
somewhere before doing his heist this
way
he would have had fake ids on hand ready
to use
making his life easier when he got to
mexico
as time goes on valenzuela could have
easily figured out a way to
slowly launder his stolen cash through
some sort of fake
business with krypto slowly coming on
mainstream he could have waited
years to carefully reintegrate back into
society with his fake id
and laundered money in a carefully
chosen country
but of course in this reality instead
he was still a wanted man by the u.s for
stealing millions of dollars from a bank
the mexican authorities were quick to
extradite valenzuela
in september 2018 as soon as he got out
of jail
in a letter to the judge pleading for
leniency he wrote that the point of his
heist
was to raise money for his dad's medical
bills whether that's true or not his
father did pass before valenzuela got to
trial in the u.s
but even if the main motivation was to
pay for his dad's medical treatment
prosecutors also argued that revenge was
another factor
4.3 million dollars was way too much for
medical bills
it definitely gave some weight to the
federal prosecutor's claims that he was
out
for vengeance valenzuela admitted that
he had given the missing
500 000 to his dad for medical bills but
according to his family members
they never got to use the cash that's
because it was supposedly stolen
right out of their car the prosecution
didn't believe him they had
other ideas about where the funds went
according to them
valenzuela hid the half million dollars
somewhere in washington
before he drove to mexico with the
hidden stash
he hoped to have some cash in case he
did get caught
valenzuela ultimately pleaded guilty to
the theft
and on april 29 2019 he was sentenced to
10 years in prison his time served in
mexico
did not count towards any of the new
sentencing his girlfriend
ended up never getting charged with
being an accomplice
here's what's next