LINDALE, TX (KLTV) -
Authorities say they've got the man responsible for robbing a Lindale bank in mid-September in custody.
Lindale Police and FBI agents arrested Anthony Rios with the assistance of U.S. Customs agents at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on Thursday.
Rios was arrested after exiting a plane arriving from the Philippines.
He is charged with aggravated robbery in connection with the armed
robbery of the Capital One Bank in Lindale on September 12.
Sergeant Chad McElyea said witness statements and "substantial evidence" from Rios's Lindale home and car led authorities to name him as the lead suspect, but they had a problem - he had flown to the Philippines a few days after the robbery happened.
Lindale police and the FBI had been keeping track of Rios online - even following him on Facebook - when they got a break Wednesday.
"We were monitoring any ticket purchases or anything he might have made to fly back, and we were notified yesterday that he had boarded a plane to leave the Philippines to fly back to the U.S.," McElyea said.
U.S. Customs agents met Rios when he got off the plane Thursday morning and handed him over to authorities. Officials processed Rios in Grapevine, and have since transferred him back to the Smith County Jail, where he's held on $750,000 bond.
McElyea says this was a "quick, good, safe ending" to a robbery that authorities weren't sure would be easily solved.
"How many people would you think would return?" McElyea asked. "There's always that thought, he might not come back. But then, we were working out scenarios, and the way - what we would have to do if that happened and how we would handle it."
Lindale police say they will be handing over their investigation to the Smith County District Attorney's office.
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Source: Smith County Jail
A photo of the bank robbery suspect, taken from surveillance. (Source: Lindale Police Dept.)
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