Two Middletown residents have been arrested and charged with some of the People’s United Bank robberies at Connecticut Stop & Shop stores this summer.
Gino Rizzo, 28, and Jalania Pantano, 27, both of Middletown, were arrested this week after being indicted for bank robbery offenses, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.
The indictment alleges that Rizzo robbed People’s United Bank branches located in Stop & Shop supermarkets in Glastonbury on July 16 and in Newington on July 18. Rizzo and Pantano allegedly robbed a People’s United Bank branch located in a Stop & Shop in West Hartford on July 20.
After a grand jury in Bridgeport returned a three-count indictment on August 17, Rizzo and Pantano appeared in New Haven federal court on Tuesday and were ordered detained.
Several People’s United branches at Stop & Shop were robbed this summer, the statement said, and the FBI and several local police departments have been investigating those robberies. Separately, Naugatuck police arrested another robbery suspect in July.
