A bloke has shared his shock after flogging his countryside home to a man on the FBI’s most wanted list. Daniel Andreas San Diego, 46, was arrested in the Maenan area of Conwy and is now awaiting extradition.
He’s been linked to explosions at an Emeryville biotech firm and another blast at a nutritional products company in Pleasanton in 2003. Aled Evans told the BBC how San Diego forked out £425,000 for the house near Llanrwst, Conwy, in August 2023, going by the name Danny Webb.
“He was quite excited because there was a big woodland at the back he was into his mountain biking and that’s what sold it to him, apparently,” Mr Evans said. “It sounded like the ideal place he wanted – but he wanted it for other reasons,” he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.
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Maenan is a quiet area just off the A470, one of the main roads running through North Wales, about 10 miles from Conwy. The house is a white villa with a balcony offering stunning views of the rolling hills.
Mr Evans noted it wasn’t “in the middle of nowhere” but was along an unmade track on a “quite busy” public footpath through the wood. He added that Mr San Diego had offered £15,000 over the asking price, reports North Wales Live.
“The day of the viewing he spent considerable time on the balcony looking at the view and that’s what sold it to him, apparently,” Mr Evans said.
He told the BBC San Diego was excited about using the woodland at the back of the house for mountain biking. However Mr Evans thought it was strange the buyer seemed unfazed about unfinished repair work, to a damaged summer house. Mr Evans said San Diego was a quiet, likeable man, who told him it was his work in IT that had brought him to Wales.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Mr Evans recalled seeing Mr San Diego for about 20 minutes when he moved in, saying, “He wasn’t in a hurry and was very cool about the whole situation,” and noted that the neighbours “never saw him”. Yet, Mr Evans expressed his astonishment when he learned from a neighbour over the phone that San Diego had been arrested.
“It’s hasn’t sunk in yet. But it hasn’t affected us of course. You couldn’t make it up. It was a perfect place to hide and he was besotted with the view from the house. His view for the foreseeable future won’t be half as good.”
The FBI accuses San Diego of being “an animal rights extremist” involved in bombings in San Francisco, including two blasts in August 2003 at a biotech company’s campus and a nail bomb at a nutritional products firm a month later.
A National Crime Agency spokesperson said: “On Monday 25 November 2024, officers from the National Crime Agency, supported by colleagues from Counter Terrorism Policing and North Wales Police, arrested Daniel Andreas San Diego, aged 46, in the Conwy area of Wales, at the request of the US authorities. He appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court today (26 November) as extradition proceedings began. He was remanded in custody.”
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