A series of local bank robberies during the summer has been connected to one suspect.

Early Friday morning, a task force which included members of the FBI Southern Ohio Safe Streets Task Force, members of the FBI Squad 6, FBI SWAT, officers from the Heath Police Department, investigators from the Logan County Sheriff’s Department, Springfield Police Division, Urbana Police Division and West Liberty Police Department participated in an FBI search warrant raid at a Heath, Ohio, residence where Stefan Chadwick Crawmer, 52, was taken into custody for his suspected involvement in bank robberies that occurred in Springfield, Urbana and West Liberty during the summer.

On July 1, The Peoples Savings Bank in Urbana, 618 Scioto St., was robbed just after 9 a.m. Crawmer is charged federally with committing this robbery.

On Aug. 17, he is alleged to have robbed the Civista Bank branch office, 205 S. Detroit St. in West Liberty.

Crawmer remains in the custody of the FBI and was scheduled to make his initial appearance in Federal District Court in Dayton on Friday afternoon.

He faces charges of bank robbery, felon in possession of a firearm and use of a firearm during a crime of violence.

“We are very fortunate to have a tremendous working relationship with our surrounding law enforcement agencies and with the FBI who spent a great deal of time meeting and working together in developing and following up on criminal intelligence leads that led to Friday morning’s raid and arrest,” said Urbana Police Chief Matt Lingrell.

Crawmer has a history of such criminal activity.

In 2011, a federal judge sentenced him to more than 22 years in prison for the September 2010 robbery of a North Alabama bank, according to archived reporting on the FBI website, Birmingham Division.

U.S. District Judge Inge P. Johnson sentenced Crawmer – who was 43 years old at the time and listed as living in Columbus, Ohio – for robbing the Wells Fargo Bank in Madison, Alabama of $8,050, for using a Makarov 9mm semi-automatic handgun in the robbery, and for being a convicted felon in possession of that firearm. Johnson sentenced Crawmer to 15 years and eight months in prison for the armed robbery and being a felon in possession of a firearm. She added the minimum mandatory seven years in prison for his use of a firearm during the robbery.

Crawmer pleaded guilty to the charges in 2011. At the time of the Wells Fargo robbery, Crawmer was supposed to be under electronic monitoring as a condition of his pretrial release in the Southern District of Ohio where he was indicted for being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to Ohio federal court records, Crawmer cut the electronic monitor off his ankle and fled his residence in May 2010.

“This defendant is a career criminal with at least four felony convictions prior to the bank robbery in Alabama,” U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance said in 2011.

“This is the type of career criminal who must be taken off the streets and locked in prison. Thanks to the quick response of Madison Police, who apprehended Crawmer shortly after the robbery, and their collaborative work with the FBI, this defendant will be in prison for a long time,” Vance said after the 2011 sentencing.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Maley said in 2011, “I want to express my appreciation to the Madison Police Department and agents from our Huntsville Resident Agency for their efforts in bringing this violent criminal to justice,” Maley said. “The sentence is fitting for this violent felon.”

Information on when Crawmer was released from prison on the Alabama sentencing was not available Friday via federal database searches.