Lawrence men plead guilty to running multi-state ATM robbery operation

Three Lawrence men who robbed 13 ATM machines and businesses in four New England states have pleaded guilty to charges of larceny, money laundering and other offenses, the Essex district attorney’s office announced Thursday.

David Barker, 39, and Efrain Montero, 40, pleaded guilty in Salem Superior Court during hearings held in August and September. Jonathan Santos, 35, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy last March, and was sentenced to two years probation, prosecutors said in a press release.

The men were arrested following an investigation that started in October, 2015 in Mansfield, where an Apple product retailer was broken into, and phones taken from the store were activated in Lawrence, the release said.

Over the next 10 months, the men broke into eight ATMs and four bank branches in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, according to prosecutors.

Dressed in dark clothing and masks, the men used power tools to disarm alarm systems and “gain access to the ATMs and businesses,” the release stated.

In October, Montero is scheduled to be sentenced to five to seven years in prison. Barker is scheduled to be sentenced to six years in prison in March, according to the release.