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A handsome, smooth-talking Colombian who has been wanted in several countries on suspicion of stealing from wealthy hotel guests - and has visited Bahrain under a false identity - has been arrested after crossing illegally from Canada into the US.
In Vermont, Juan Carlos Guzman-Betancourt told a US Border Patrol agent, who was responding to a tip, that his car had broken down in Quebec and he had unknowingly walked across the border into Vermont, according to an affidavit.
He also carried a Spanish passport with the name Jordi Ejarque-Rodriguez containing stamps from Bahrain, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Oman, the affidavit said.
Fingerprints identified him as Guzman-Betancourt, who records show has been removed from the US three times.
Guzman-Betancourt, 33, above, has at least 10 aliases and uses his good looks and gift of the gab to get into rooms and locked safes, authorities say. He once escaped from a prison outside London in 2005 after persuading authorities to let him go to a dental appointment without a guard.
British prosecutors and police have compared him to legendary American con man Frank Abagnale Jr., the subject of the film Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo Di Caprio.
"He is a highly accomplished liar - plausible, believable and very professional. He commits these offences for a living and is, therefore, incredibly well versed in identity theft, hotel and foreign travel," Detective Sgt. Andy Swindells, who arrested Guzman-Betancourt in 2005 testified at his trial.
He was sentenced in that case to three years in prison for stealing cash and jewellery from London's Madarin Oriental Hotel in May 2001 and Dorchester Hotel in December 2004, police there said. He was going by the name Gonzalo Zapater Vives at the time.
He has also been wanted in Canada, Colombia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Thailand and Venezuela, according to a 2005 Associated Press report. He has been convicted of larceny in Virginia and New York and of fraudulent use of credit cards in Florida.
