This is the secluded Welsh beauty spot where one of the FBI’s most wanted terror suspects was tracked down after more than 20 years on the run.
Daniel Andreas San Diego, 46, was arrested at a property in a rural area next to woodland in Conwy on Monday.
The FBI has been hunting the alleged animal rights extremist since two bombs went off an hour apart on the campus of a biotechnology company in California in August 2003. He is also suspected in a nail bombing a month later.
But to the handful of neighbours who lived near him in the shadow of Snowdonia he was known as Danny, a quiet American who kept to himself.
One said of his £425,000 detached bungalow: ‘It’s such a secluded place, no-one would even know there was a house there unless you walked right up to it.
‘We just assumed he had his reasons to move somewhere out of the way and just left him alone.’
Speaking to MailOnline, the local described how they would only see ‘Danny’ in passing while walking the dog but he ‘didn’t really seem keen to talk’ and ‘never introduced himself’.
Other times, he could be seen driving around an old Seat or chopping wood by his garage.
They said: ‘It was when I saw on the news that a fugitive had been arrested in North Wales that I recognised him straight away.
‘I couldn’t believe it – we’d been living so close to someone who’d been on the run from the FBI for 20 years. It’s no wonder he never told us anything about his background.’
The FBI said San Diego, who was born in Berkeley, California, has ‘ties’ to an animal rights extremist group and there was a reward of $250,000 (£200,000) for information leading directly to his arrest.
On August 28, 2003, two bombs exploded approximately one hour apart on the campus of a biotechnology corporation in Emeryville, the agency said.
Then, on September 26, 2003, another bomb strapped with nails exploded at a nutritional products corporation in Pleasanton, a wanted poster read.
A group called Revolutionary Cells-Animal Liberation Brigade claimed responsibility for the bombings, citing the companies’ ties to Huntingdon Life Sciences.
Huntingdon was a target of animal rights extremists because of its work with experimental drugs and chemicals on animals while under contract for pharmaceutical, cosmetic and other companies.
Photos of San Diego appeared on billboards from California to New York, including Times Square.
He was featured on the TV program ‘America’s Most Wanted’ several times.
San Diego grew up in an upper-middle class suburb of Marin County north of San Francisco. His father was the city manager of nearby Belvedere, a wealthy enclave.
He had worked as a computer network specialist, was a skilled sailor and was known to carry a handgun, the FBI said.
The agency had San Diego under surveillance on October 6, 2003, when he parked his car near downtown San Francisco, and vanished into a transit station — not to be seen again until his arrest.
There had been numerous sightings reported around the world and investigators announced searches at times as far apart as Massachusetts and Hawaii.
FBI director Christopher Wray said: ‘Daniel San Diego’s arrest after more than 20 years as a fugitive for two bombings in the San Francisco area shows that no matter how long it takes, the FBI will find you and hold you accountable.
‘There’s a right way and a wrong way to express your views in our country, and turning to violence and destruction of property is not the right way.’
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