Daniel Andreas San Diego, who was placed on the FBI’s "most wanted" list after a series of 2003 bombings in the San Francisco area, has appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court as judges consider a US request for his extradition.
San Diego, 47, was arrested in November 2024 near Maenan in Conwy, north Wales, after more than two decades on the run. If extradited and convicted in the United States, prosecutors say he faces multiple counts including causing damage and destruction by explosives, carrying an unregistered firearm and using or carrying explosives; some counts carry lengthy mandatory sentences and a terrorism enhancement could substantially increase any penalty.
Prosecutor Joel Smith KC, representing the US authorities, told the court that evidence links San Diego to two separate bombings in 2003 at companies with ties to the pharmaceutical firm Huntingdon Life Sciences, a frequent target of animal rights campaigners. Two devices went off about an hour apart at a site in Emeryville, California, on Aug. 28, 2003. A month later, on Sept. 26, 2003, a nail-studded device exploded at a site in Pleasanton, California. No injuries were reported in either incident.
Court filings presented at the hearing said that investigators searched San Diego’s home on Oct. 8, 2003, finding magazines and pamphlets suggesting an interest in animal rights. A search of his car on Oct. 9 reportedly uncovered items consistent with bomb-making, including pipes, acetone and copper wire; prosecutors said San Diego’s fingerprints were found on some items, including the acetone. The court was told he had been stopped by a traffic warden an hour before the Pleasanton blast.
After he disappeared from California, San Diego was placed on the FBI’s most wanted list. Prosecutors at the extradition hearing said he bought a house near Llanrwst in north Wales in August 2023 under the name Danny Webb before his arrest the following November.
Defence counsel Mark Summers KC and an expert on American criminal law, David Patton, gave evidence challenging aspects of the US indictment. Patton told the court that certain counts, as charged, risk breaching the US Constitution’s double jeopardy protections that bar multiple prosecutions for the same offence. He said prosecutors in the United States can "stack" multiple charges arising from the same conduct, each carrying its own mandatory minimum, which can yield extremely long combined sentences and exert pressure on defendants to plead guilty rather than go to trial.
Summers told the court that if a US judge accepted a terrorism enhancement in the case, sentencing guidelines could point to a term of up to 90 years. He argued that some counts in the current indictment were legally incoherent if tried together, citing as an example separate charges for possession of a bomb and possession of a bomb with intent to detonate.
The US extradition request includes newly added counts that allege "using or carrying an explosive device to commit a felony," the hearing heard. Defence lawyers are contesting the legal coherence of the indictment and asserting constitutional concerns under US law; prosecutors say the charges are appropriate and supported by the evidence recovered in 2003 and subsequent investigative work.
The hearing continues at Westminster Magistrates' Court and will determine whether San Diego can be surrendered to the United States to face trial. Authorities in both countries have said the proceedings will be conducted under the formal extradition process; any decision can be subject to further legal challenge in UK courts.