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6 Holdups In One Month: Serial Bank Robber From Passaic Gets 7½ Years

A Passaic man was sentenced to 7½ years in federal prison Tuesday for robbing six banks in one month -- including a Wells Fargo branch in Clifton.

Quentin Morales

Quentin Morales

Photo Credit: COURTESY: FBI

Quentin Morales, 27 -- a/k/a “Quinton Morales” -- will have to serve nearly all of the term because there's no parole in the federal prison system. 

Hours after the FBI posted a reward for his capture, state parole officers arrested Morales last summer.

He eventually accepted a plea deal from the government.

SEE: Passaic Man Admits Serial Bank Robberies

Morales wore "some form of dark hat or head covering, a long-sleeved shirt or jacket, black or orange sunglasses, and/or what appeared to be prescription glasses" during the holdups -- and used a demand note each time, the FBI said.

“You are being robbed. Give me all your large bills. No alarms. No dye packs. You got 10 seconds,” read the note in the July 13 robbery of the Wells Fargo Main Avenue branch in Clifton.

At least twice, "Morales said he had a gun and urged bank tellers to hurry," U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.

Morales told a federal judge in Trenton in February that he also robbed:

  • A Wells Fargo branch on Passaic Avenue in Kearny on June 24;
  • A Capital One branch on South Elmora Avenue in Elizabeth on June 27;
  • A Wells Fargo on Boulevard in Kenilworth on June 30;
  • A Wells Fargo on North Wood Avenue in Linden on July 6;
  • A Wells Fargo on Stuyvesant Avenue in Union on June 25.

Carpenito credited special agents of the FBI’s Violent Crimes/Interstate Theft Task Force with the investigation leading to today’s plea, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Veronica Allende of his Criminal Division in Trenton. 

He also thanked the N.J. State Parole Board and police in Kearny, Elizabeth, Kenilworth, Linden, Clifton, Union Township and Newark police, as well as the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.

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