Thursday, June 8, 2000 | 11:25 a.m.
Police believe they broke up a violent criminal crew linked to five casino holdups when they charged two men this morning in connection with a series of brazen heists dating back to 1998.
Jose Vigoa, 40, and Oscar Cisneros, 23, were arrested Wednesday and booked into the Clark County jail this morning in connection with the robberies of the Bellagio hotel-casino Saturday and the New York-New York hotel-casino six weeks ago, Metro Police said.
The two men also were charged in the holdups of armored car guards at the Desert Inn in June 1999, the Mandalay Bay in October 1999 and the MGM Grand in September 1998.
"We recovered evidence linking them to several of the robberies including coins from several of the casinos," said Lt. John Alamshaw of Metro's robbery unit. "We recovered clothing worn in the Bellagio robbery, body armor, handguns, long guns and a large amount of currency. We've been looking at these individuals for a while."
Missing from the charges were any connected with the March 3 armored car robbery and slaying of guards Richard F. Sosa and Gary Dean Prestidge II at a Henderson shopping center.
"We're still investigating that connection," Alamshaw said. When asked if either man had a gunshot wound in the leg -- like the wound police believe one of the robbers in the deadly Henderson robbery sustained -- Alamshaw said he couldn't comment. Previously police have said they believe the deadly Henderson robbery was connected to the others.
Police have suspected the two men for several weeks, but a break came when detectives held the picture of Vigoa next to the Bellagio surveillance video that captured images of the robbery.
Police asked Vigoa's federal probation officer to look at the photo comparison.
"He said, 'Yeah, that's him,' " Alamshaw said. "The Bellagio tape was so good. When we saw it, we thought, 'That's got to be him.' "
At about 5 p.m. Wednesday, police spotted Vigoa at Windmill Lane and Pecos Road as he got into a sport utility vehicle with his wife and daughter.
They followed him and tried to make a traffic stop, but Vigoa sped off, leading police onto U.S. 95 southbound in a chase that reached speeds of 100 mph before exiting near the Galleria mall in Henderson.
Vigoa drove the wrong way on surface streets trying to avoid capture before hitting a tree near Sunset Road and Mountain Vista. He then ran from the vehicle, leaving his wife and child behind, but police caught him a short time later.
"We didn't think he would act that way with his wife and child in the car," Alamshaw said. "We wanted to apprehend this guy. We felt he was armed and dangerous and didn't want him to get away."
As police were chasing Vigoa, other officers were in the 6500 block of Cordelle Drive, near Nellis Air Force Base, arresting Cisneros. At the same time SWAT officers and detectives went to a junkyard on Tropicana Avenue and Boulder Highway to search for evidence.
The two men were booked into the county jail this morning on robbery, robbery with a deadly weapon and kidnapping charges. They were also charged with attempted murder in connection with the Bellagio and Desert Inn robberies.
There were held without bond pending an initial appearance in court.
In many of the holdups a third robber was involved, but police say they believe that different men served as the third partner in the various heists. Alamshaw said detectives are still trying to identify other suspects.
"We believe they are hard-core individuals," Alamshaw said. "They showed the ability to remain calm in a stressful situation."
That led detectives to believe that the well-organized robbers were professional criminals.
The series of robberies were all similar in method and all the heists illustrated the robbers' propensity for violence. In the Bellagio holdup, the suspects fired two shots at pursuing security guards. Suspects in the Desert Inn robbery also fired several shots, hitting two armored car guards.
Alamshaw called the arrests the culmination of a major robbery investigation.
"They had a propensity for violence that was shown in several of the robberies," he said. "We wanted to get them off the street. We believe we have the main players in custody."
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