Trio charged with armed bank robbery, conspiracy to commit bank robbery and brandishing a firearm during the commission of a violent crime
By Linda Seida, Staff Writer
Denied bail last week, a man who was arrested as one of a trio of suspected bank robbers declined an opportunity to request bail again this week and will remain incarcerated, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Magistrate Judge John J. Hughes in U.S. District Court in Trenton agreed to allow Federico Feria to return to court Feb. 25 for a detention hearing, where he could have made a second request for bail. Through his lawyer Monday, Mr. Feria canceled the hearing.
”That means he stays in custody until the case goes to trial or in the event of a guilty plea,” said Michael Drewniak, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, District of New Jersey. “This does not prevent him from making another request for bail.”
Mr. Feria and two accomplices confessed to robbing a Ringoes bank at gunpoint and leading police on a high-speed chase from New Jersey to Pennsylvania Feb. 17, according to an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Michael Scimeca.
”I am told that the defendants informed authorities following their arrests that they are in the country illegally,” Mr. Drewniak said. He did not know their country of origin.
Judge Hughes denied bail for all three suspects last week. They are being held in the Monmouth County Jail.
The trio were charged with armed bank robbery, which carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in federal prison; conspiracy to commit bank robbery, which carries a maximum five-year penalty in prison; and brandishing a firearm during the commission of a violent crime, which carries a mandatory minimum of seven years in prison.
In the suspects’ vehicle, investigators found masks, an “Uzi-type firearm” and a shotgun, according to the affidavit.
”The tellers, who were acting in fear of their lives and well-being, complied with the demands of the bank robbers and provided the robbers with approximately $1,800,” Special Agent Scimeca wrote in the affidavit.
Police from Lambertville followed the getaway vehicle, a green Nissan, as it sped across the toll bridge to Pennsylvania at a speed estimated at 120 mph and smashed through the toll gate, breaking the Nissan’s windshield.
Along with Solebury police, Lambertville police captured the suspects in Solebury.
Solebury Police Chief Dominick Bellizzie said the suspects possessed various forms of identification. He said investigators also found an 8-inch pipe bomb filled with black powder in one suspect’s Lahaska living quarters. Police called in the Philadelphia Police Department’s Bomb Squad, who decided to evacuate the area and detonate the pipe bomb rather than attempt to remove it.
Information given to Solebury police by Federico Feria said he was 18 years old and a resident of Lahaska. The information also gave his last name as Feri.
Later, the U.S. attorney’s office said his age is 24. He later gave investigators a Lambertville address.
Emilio Ruiz and Cirilo Feria, both 23, are from New Hope. The last name initially given to Solebury police for Cirilo Feria was Seria.
It remained unclear Monday whether Federico Feria and Cirilo Feria are related.
”The two defendants named Feria have given conflicting information to agents about their familial relationship,” Mr. Drewniak said. “They last informed agents that they were indeed brothers.”
Police in Solebury and Lambertville have said evidence leads them to believe the suspects also were responsible for the robbery of a Wachovia Bank in New Hope on Jan. 27 as well as a string of more than a dozen residential and commercial burglaries in New Hope, Lambertville and Solebury last year.
No charges have been filed yet in connection with the New Hope armed robbery, according to an FBI spokesman.
”It does appear at this point that the individuals in custody in the district of New Jersey in connection with the PNC Bank robbery will be charged with the New Hope robbery at some point in the future,” FBI Special Agent J.J. Klaver said.
”Since they are in custody and already charged federally with another robbery, there is no urgency in charging them with the New Hope robbery. We anticipate that they will be indicted in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for the New Hope robbery, however there is no estimate available as to when that would be,” he added.
Lambertville police Director Bruce Cocuzza said charges levied by local police departments must be coordinated with federal authorities. Lambertville police are considering charges against the trio for eluding arrest when they led Sgt. Robert Brown on the high-speed chase across the toll bridge.
The investigation is continuing into the string of burglaries that occurred last year, and charges may result from that as well, Mr. Cocuzza said, although he added it is too early to say for certain. “There is a lot of stuff we’re sorting through,” he said.
Solebury, too, is considering additional charges, Chief Bellizzie said, although he did not list them. “We have to wait until the FBI completes their investigation,” Chief Bellizzie said. “There’s no rush, they’re not going anywhere.”

