FBI Arrests 2 in 1993 Robbery of Canyon Country Bank

Federal agents arrested two suspects in the robbery last June of a Canyon Country bank in which nine people were held hostage overnight at the home of a bank officer who was forced by gunmen to open the bank’s vault, the FBI announced Monday.

Alex Yepes, 25, of Valencia and Chad Pelch, 24, of Saugus were arrested Saturday in Las Vegas, according to the FBI.

“This (Los Angeles area) is the bank robbery capital of the world, so there is nothing unusual about a robbery occurring, but this one was particularly traumatic for the victims because their homes were invaded, and they were subjected to a night of captivity,” said Charlie J. Parsons, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Los Angeles.

Charges of armed bank robbery with forced accompaniment were filed on Jan. 14 in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles, said FBI spokesman Ron Twersky.

Yepes and Pelch were two of four men sought by federal agents in the June 11, 1993, robbery of TransWorld Bank on Soledad Canyon Road, in which bank officer Toula Demosthenous and eight others, including five children, were held hostage overnight by five gunmen at Demosthenous’ Canyon Country home. One suspect was arrested earlier, and the fourth man remains at large.

Three of the gunmen drove Demosthenous to the bank the next morning and forced her to open the vault, the FBI said.

Demosthenous and the other hostages--friends, family members and colleagues--were not injured, according to records filed in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles. The robbers fled with $107,689.

A confidential informant contacted FBI Special Agent William M. Ayers on June 15 and told him that he had seen between $15,000 and $20,000 in a red toolbox at Pelch’s home, according to an affidavit by Ayers included in the criminal complaint. The following day, Pelch drove to Las Vegas with two friends and returned with a new Ford Ranger pickup truck, according to the court documents.

Ayers received a tip on June 21 from another source who said he had heard Yepes admit taking part in the robbery with Pelch and his brother, Brett Pelch, who remains at large, according to the affidavit.

According to this informant, Yepes said that he got away with more than $100,000 and that he subsequently spent $12,000 on a 1990 Ford Thunderbird, which the FBI later confirmed, according to the affidavit.

Federal agents learned early in the investigation that Yepes and the Pelch brothers had fled to Las Vegas after the robbery, Parsons said. Chad Pelch and Yepes were arrested Saturday after federal agents spotted a car matching a description of one their vehicles.

Federal agents arrested Darren Patrick Towers, 25, of Saugus in December as a suspect in the TransWorld robbery, as well as the Sept. 17 robbery of a Coast Federal Bank in Northridge. Towers subsequently pleaded guilty to conspiracy, armed bank robbery with forced accompaniment and use of a firearm during a crime of violence, according to court records.

In the Coast Fed robbery, a group of men invaded a Canoga Park home and held bank officer Terry Duranso and four others hostage at gunpoint. The next morning, the gunmen forced Duranso to open her bank’s vault.

Towers confessed to his role in events leading up to the Coast Fed robbery during a Dec. 6 interview with FBI Special Agent Jo A. Deatherage, according to an affidavit. Towers told the agent that he had been recruited by a friend to commit a bank robbery that involved taking hostages.

Towers said that when he arrived at the Duranso home about midnight Sept. 17, he found five hostages lying on the floor and that he stood guard over them for the remainder of the ordeal, according to the affidavit.

Three of his colleagues drove Duranso to the bank and by 8:15 a.m. they had completed the robbery, from which Towers received $4,000, according to the affidavit. Bank officials said that more than $100,000 was taken in that robbery.

Towers, who is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 28, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Assistant U. S. Atty. David Fields declined to comment on whether additional charges will be filed against Chad Pelch and Yepes in the Northridge robbery.

Meanwhile, federal agents are still seeking Brett Pelch, 26, in the case. Formerly of Valencia, Brett Pelch may still be in the Las Vegas area and is considered armed and dangerous, agents said.