A trip to the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles in Wethersfield for a driver's license led authorities to a man wanted in connection with an armored car heist nearly 900 miles away, in Louisville, Kentucky, in December.
The FBI had been searching for 29-year-old Mark Espinosa for nearly two months and Wethersfield police determined he has been living in an apartment in Middletown.
The FBI Wanted poster for Espinosa said he was working as an armored truck driver near Jefferson Mall in Louisville, Kentucky on Dec. 5 when he and money from an armored truck owned by Garda World disappeared.
The FBI affidavit says "hundreds of thousands of dollars" were missing from the truck, according to the Associated Press.
An Associated Press report from Dec. 5 says another Garda employee had gone inside the mall to make deliveries and pickups and returned to find that Espinosa and the cash were gone.
In a joint press conference with @LMPD, FBI Louisville announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Mark Espinosa for his role in the Garda armored car theft. #FBIMostWanted pic.twitter.com/Y7A9NLMy2I
— FBI Louisville (@FBILouisville) January 9, 2019
Police have said they ruled out a random act of violence and believe that Espinosa took steps to plan out the theft and cover up the planning.
On Jan. 30, Espinosa went to the DMV in Wethersfield to get a driver’s license and staff called police because the birth certificate he presented was forged, according to police.
When an officer found Espinosa in a hallway of the DMV, he gave a false name, according to police, and he was arrested on suspicion of forgery and brought to police headquarters.
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When police fingerprinted him, they realized that the man was actually the Mark Espinosa wanted by the FBI, according to police.
At that point, officers and detectives from the Wethersfield Police Department began working with the FBI, which led to recovering a significant amount of cash from his apartment in Middletown.
Officials said during a news conference that Espinosa grew up in New Britain.
Espinosa will be turned over to the FBI after a court appearance in Connecticut, according to police.
According to the FBI, a federal arrest warrant was issued on Dec. 10 after Espinosa was charged with theft from interstate shipment.
Additional charges against Espinosa include second-degree forgery and interfering with an officer.
