Akil Saeed Daniels was sentenced to 110 months in prison for robbing credit unions in Poway and Chula Vista in 2022. He was released from a long stint in prison for robbing the same Chula Vista credit union more than a decade earlier. The twice-robbed credit union – California Coast on H Street in Chula Vista – was one of five financial institutions Daniels robbed in 2011. For that, he was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison. Following his release in June 2022, he then robbed the same Chula Vista location of California Coast Credit Union only three months later, on September 27, 2022. He robbed the Mission Federal Credit Union the next day.
Daniels used a demand note during the most recent robbery of California Coast. Coincidentally, the teller he robbed at that location in 2011 still works for the credit union. That teller was standing beside another teller when Daniels robbed that location again 11 years later.
During the Mission Federal Credit Union robbery in Poway, he used a demand note that read, “Hand me all the money, don’t make me get violent” or “Hand me all the money, I don’t want to get violent.”
Employees who have been through a robbery are impacted for the rest of their lives. This defendant made the decision to terrorize the same people not once, but twice. And now, not once, but twice, he will pay for his crime with a lengthy prison term,” said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman.
This case is the result of the ongoing efforts of the Violent Crime and Human Trafficking (VCHT) Section. Formed in 2019, the VCHT is tasked with leading collaborations between federal and local law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of cases involving violent crimes, firearms and gang cases; sex trafficking and child exploitation; civil rights, and labor trafficking. The VCHT Section oversees the Southern District of California Coordinators for Project Safe Neighborhoods, Human Trafficking, and Project Safe Childhood. The VCHT Section also provides federal prosecutors to the San Diego Violent Crimes Task Force, the downtown San Diego Violent Crimes Task Force-Gang Group, the North County Gang Task Force, and the East County Gang Task Force.