Reward Announced in Hunt for Chicago Escapees

Thomas R. Trautmann, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is asking for the public’s help in locating the two individuals who staged a daring escape from Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in the early morning hours of December 18, 2012. Mr. Trautmann announced today a reward of up to $50,000 for information that leads to the apprehension of the men.

Joseph “Jose” Banks and Kenneth Conley were charged with the escape in a criminal complaint filed yesterday in the United States District Court in Chicago yesterday. Once it was determined that the pair were missing from the MCC, a massive manhunt was initiated under the coordination of the FBI. The U.S. Marshals Service, the Bureaus of Prisons, and the Chicago Police Department, together with numerous other law enforcement agencies, are assisting in the ongoing search for the pair.

Both Banks and Conley are considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information about their whereabouts is asked to call the Chicago Field Office of the FBI at (312) 421-6700 or local law enforcement authorities.

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- Related FBI press release
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