July 23, 2009
A bank robbery task force made up of FBI and Massachusetts State and Needham police officers arrested a white supremacist from Norwood for a series of bank robberies in Massachusetts.
Authorities arrested the alleged trigger-man Dimitri Long, 32, on July 1, 2009. Long's half brother, Michael Coty, 44, of Dedham, whom authorities believe to have been the getaway car driver, was also arrested. Together, the two have reportedly been arrested 155 times as adults.
The two brothers are alleged to be the "U30" bank robbers, responsible for robbing seven banks in the Boston suburbs from March through June 2009, stealing $45,000. The robbery heists were referred to as "U30" because the armed robber was always out of the bank in under 30 seconds.
Both men were arraigned in Dedham District Court on charges of armed robbery with a firearm while masked, assault by means of a dangerous weapon, stealing by fear, larceny over $250, and conspiracy to commit bank robbery.
Long, who reportedly has the words "White Pride" tattooed across his abdomen, has a lengthy criminal history, including a 2004 conviction for assault with intent to murder as a hate crime and civil rights violation. Long pleaded guilty to stabbing and beating a white male because the man had dated an African-American woman; he was sentenced to four years in prison.
In that incident, Long and two accomplices viciously beat, stabbed and stomped the man, burned him with lit cigarettes, drew a swastika on his forehead and a racial epithet on his back, and called him ``a disgrace to his race.'' The victim was then thrown from a moving car and laid out across commuter train tracks, left to be run over by a train. The man managed to crawl to safety and call for help.
Long and Coty were arrested after allegedly robbing a Needham bank on July 1. Officers recovered a black pellet gun, believed to have been used in the robberies, as well as a bag with $10,000.
In each "U30" robbery, a man wearing a disguise on his face and carrying either a gun or explosive device entered a bank and threatened a teller. In some incidents, a fake bomb was set up at another location as a decoy to distract police. In most cases, the robber pointed a gun at the teller.
According to authorities, even before the rash of bank robberies began, an explosive device was discovered by a payphone in front of a church in Needham with a note attached with the words, "Jew babies. White power." Authorities suspect that the same suspects were responsible and that the incident was a practice run for the subsequent U30 robberies.