One of the most wanted suspected criminals in the United States was arrested after 16 years on the run, the FBI said Thursday.
James J Bulger, 81, also known as "Whitey," was arrested Wednesday with his long-time partner Catherine Greig in Santa Monica, California, the FBI said in a statement, DPA reported.
Bulger is suspected of having killed at least 19 people and having been active in drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion. He allegedly led an Irish-American criminal gang in the Boston area in the 1970s and 1980s which used extreme brutality to secure a very large income.
The gang's crimes inspired Martin Scorsese's 2006 mob film The Departed.
Bulger and Greig had been on the run for years. They had been spotted in London in 2002, and two years later they were tracked down to Uruguay.
Born in Boston in 1929, Whitey Bulger did time in California's Alcatraz prison when he was a young man. Later, he made a name for himself in Boston's criminal scene. The FBI had offered a generous reward for information leading to his arrest.