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'Back Street Bandit' is in custody, authorities confirm today

E-mail|Link|Comments () July 23, 2010 03:49 PM

Backstreet bank robber copy.jpg

Bank surveillance photos/FBI

The FBI released the bank surveillance photos of the alleged bank robber they are calling the "backstreet bandit.''

By Brian R. Ballou and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

CHELSEA -- The man dubbed the "Back Street Bandit'' by the FBI has been found, authorities said today.

Rolando Gala was being arraigned in Chelsea District Court this afternoon where he faces at least one count of robbery. He is being charged with robbing the Bank of America branch in Revere on June 14, according to Suffolk Assistant District Attorney John Lacey.

Lacey said investigators are convinced Gala is the man who allegedly committed three robberies in Greater Boston - all while wearing a stylish fedora. Lacey said that when police arrested him in Revere, they found two fedoras in his room.

Gala was also positively identified by a teller of a Malden bank that was allegedly robbed by the hat-wearing thief June 18.

The same man is suspected of committing a robbery on June 18 at the Eastern Bank branch on Broadway in Saugus, and a robbery Monday of the Bank of America branch on Centre Street in Malden. The decision on whether to charge Gala in those cases will be made by prosecutors in Essex and Middlesex counties respectively.

Gala was arrested today, one day after the Boston office of the FBI released surveillance photos of him as he allegedly committed the bank robberies. In its press release, the FBI called him the 'Back Street Bandit.''

FBI spokeswoman Gail A. Marcinkiewicz said on Thursday there was no connection between the boy band the "Backstreet Boys'' and the serial bank robbery suspect.

"It's just a name we chose for this particular bandit,'' she said.