FBI Honors River Vale Detectives For Role In 'Countdown Bandit' Capture

RIVER VALE, N.J. -- Officials with the FBI's Newark Field Office honored River Vale detectives for their role in helping catch a serial bank robber known as the Countdown Bandit.

River Vale Police Chief William Giordano, Detective Sgt. John DeVoe and Detective Peter Martin attended the ceremony.
Photo Credit: *COURTESY: River Vale PD*

Jerry DeMarco

07/13/2016 2:30 p.m.

Borough Police Chief William Giordano, Detective Sgt. John DeVoe and Detective Peter Martin attended the ceremony.

River Vale police were part of a joint task force headed by the FBI and Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office that chased Marcelino Garcia of Hackensack, who was charged with 10 counts of bank robbery.

Garcia, 23, remained held on $750,000 bail Wednesday in the Bergen County Jail.

Detectives arrested him after he made off with an undisclosed amount of cash by passing a note at the Spencer Savings Bank in Wallington on June 16.

It was the 10th robbery of banks in Bergen and Passaic that the FBI attributed to him over the course of 16 months.

Other holdups occurred at banks in Glen Rock, Lyndhurst, Maywood, New Milford, Oradell, River Edge, Rochelle Park and Wayne.

Seven involved Hudson City Savings (now M&T) branches.

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