Wilmette Bank Robbery Suspects Arrested

March 19, 2010 - Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was joined today by Gary Hartwig, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Brian King, Wilmette Chief of Police, in announcing the arrest of a Chicago man and a Nebraska man for the 2009 robbery of the Fifth Third Bank branch, located at 1255 Green Bay Road in Wilmette, Illinois.

SEFER HODZIC, age 32, whose last known address was 2308 West Grandville in Chicago, was arrested Thursday morning, March 18, by federal agents of the FBI and ICE, along with officers of the Wilmette Police Department, without incident. HODZIC was charged in a criminal complaint filed on March 15, 2010 in U.S. District Court in Chicago with one count of Bank Robbery, which is a felony offense.

A second man, MARIO BESIC, age 37, of Lincoln, Nebraska, was arrested Wednesday, March 17, while in ICE administrative custody in Omaha. BESIC was being held by ICE pending deportation to Bosnia-Herzegovina, his native country.

According to the complaint, on April 4, 2009, at approximately 12:55 P.M., BESIC and another man entered the Fifth Third Bank branch, located at 1255 Green Bay Road in Wilmette, Illinois, wearing hooded sweatshirts, while HODZIC waited outside in a getaway car. During the robbery, two bank employees were tied up. One of the employees was instructed to enter the codes to open two safes. After the safes were opened, BESIC and the other man took approximately $119,523 and fled the bank.

Subsequent investigation by the Chicago FBI, ICE, and the Wilmette Police Department developed additional evidence linking HODZIC and BESIC to the robbery and the filing of the charge announced today.

HODZIC appeared yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cole and is being held in federal custody pending a detention hearing at noon on Wednesday, March 24, in U.S. District Court in Chicago. If convicted of the charge filed against them, BESIC and HODZIC each faces a possible sentence of up to twenty (20) years incarceration.

Additional information about this and other recent Chicago area bank robberies, including downloadable photographs, is available at the Bandit Tracker web site, www.bandittrackerchicago.com.

The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.