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Virginia Blanco has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for participating in the robbery of a Wells Fargo Bank branch on Odel Avenue in Yonkers in October 2013 that included several rounds being fired during the exchange. She must also pay $303,500 in restitution.
Blanco had been found guilty by a jury of conspiracy, bank robbery, and a firearm offense in July last year following a four-day trial in White Plains federal court, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said.
Berman said that in October 2013, while Blanco was working as a teller at the Odell Avenue Wells Fargo bank branch, she conspired with Giovanny Marte to rob the bank and “provided critical information that allowed his and co-conspirators to carry out the robbery successful.”
Shortly after 3:15 p.m. on Oct. 29, 2013, that year, Marte and three others went to the bank, with one staying in the car as a driver as the other two went inside the branch. Marte and another man went inside with guns, while a third brandished a wooden saw. During the robbery, Marte fired two shots, but no one was struck.
Berman said that Marte then went into the bank vault, filled a laundry bag with more than $300,000 in cash and fled. Following the robbery, Blanco and Marte went on a vacation to Aruba, using the stolen money.
“Virginia Blanco brazenly used her inside knowledge to further an armed robbery at a Wells Fargo Bank branch in Yonkers,” Berman said. “By providing the robbers with critical information about the Bank’s security, personnel, and procedures, she set the stage for the violent episode.
"Blanco’s lengthy sentence makes clear that enablers and facilitators of bank robberies – even if they’re not the ones storming the bank, pulling the trigger, or directly terrorizing the innocent bystanders – will face justice for their conduct.”
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