Fugitive on list of FBI’s Most-Wanted Terrorists is captured in U.K.

An animal-rights activist suspected in bombings at two locations in Northern California more than two decades ago — and who landed on the FBI’s list of most-wanted terrorists — was caught in Wales on Monday, the FBI said Tuesday.

The activist, Daniel Andreas San Diego, 46, was sought in connection with the bombings of two San Francisco-area buildings that housed companies with ties to animal testing.

San Diego was accused of planting two bombs at Chiron Corp., a biotechnology company in Emeryville, California, on Aug. 28, 2003, and another on Sept. 26 that same year at Shaklee Corp., which makes health, beauty and household products in Pleasanton, California.

The FBI said San Diego targeted those corporations because they had worked with a company that had conducted experiments on animals.

No one was injured in the attacks, but the FBI said the construction, placement and timing of the devices made it clear that San Diego intended to cause serious harm. The bombings caused minor property damage.

At Chiron, the first bomb detonated early in the early morning, the FBI said, and the second bomb was set to detonate an hour after the initial blast, which the agency said was likely intended to kill or injure emergency medical workers. The second device was found before it was to go off and the area was cleared.

At Shaklee, the bomb that was detonated was wrapped in nails, the FBI said, which could have caused more substantial injuries to anyone within range of the shrapnel.

A federal arrest warrant was issued for San Diego on Oct. 5, 2003, but the next day he was able to elude FBI agents who were on his tail in San Francisco. He had been on the run ever since.

In January 2006, the FBI offered a $250,000 reward for information leading directly to his arrest, and the agency put him on the list of most-wanted terrorists in 2009. At the time, San Diego was only the second U.S. citizen, and the only domestic terrorist, to have appeared on the list, the FBI said. Adam Gadahn, a former resident of Orange County, California, was added to the list in 2006 after he was charged with treason for his connection to al-Qaida.

“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,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement Tuesday.

“There’s a right way and a wrong way to express your views in our country,” he added, “and turning to violence and destruction of property is not the right way.”

San Diego had worked at In Defense of Animals, an animal-rights organization in Mill Valley, California, where he was a computer network specialist, the agency said. After getting laid off in February 2003, he tried to start a vegan bakery in Schellville, California. The FBI said it believed he had ties to an international network of animal-rights extremists, and it suspected at one point that he had fled to Costa Rica.

When the FBI added San Diego to its most-wanted list, it emphasized that he belonged alongside other violent extremists like the leaders of al-Qaida, who had killed tens of thousands.

The FBI said it had coordinated with British authorities to arrest San Diego, but did not give any more details on how he was found, or whether the reward money would be shared. Federal authorities did not immediately say where he was being held.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.