Man on Most Wanted List Is Held as Neo-Nazi

Richard Joseph Scutari, one of the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives and an alleged member of the neo-Nazi group The Order, was arrested by federal agents Wednesday, authorities said.

Scutari was arrested without incident at an automotive repair shop where he worked, Bill Dalseg, agent in charge of the San Antonio FBI office, said.

Scutari, 38, of Fort Jefferson, N.Y., is charged with racketeering, harboring a fugitive and storing and concealing about $40,000 from the $3.6-million robbery of a Brink’s armored truck near Ukiah, Calif., in July, 1984, authorities said.

Linked to Neo-Nazi Group

He was identified by the FBI as a member of The Order, a white supremacist group believed connected with the slaying of Denver radio talk show host Alan Berg, Dalseg said.

Scutari’s name was placed on the fugitive list in September, about three weeks after 11 of his reputed former associates in The Order went on trial in Seattle on racketeering charges. He was named in eight of the acts of racketeering allegedly committed by The Order.

The indictment said that Scutari was among a group of alleged Order members accused of waging a racist, anti-Semitic crusade to overthrow the government and establish an Aryan homeland.

Testimony disclosed that it was Scutari who administered voice stress analyzer tests to Order recruits to ensure they were not government informants. The FBI has described him as an internal security agent for the group.

Assassination Threats

He suggested at least twice that Order members he viewed as security risks should be assassinated, according to testimony.

Ten members of The Order were convicted in the trial; the 11th pleaded guilty.

Scutari’s wife, Michelle, surrendered to authorities in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sunday. She appeared Monday before a federal magistrate and was released on $10,000 bond pending another hearing on March 28.

His wife was charged in Seattle last month with transporting more than $5,000 from the Ukiah robbery across state lines.