Robberies California

The third suspect wanted in a string of carjackings and kidnappings in California and Nevada was being held on $4 million bond in Pine Bluff, Ark., police said Monday. Joseph O'Neal, 30, was arrested Saturday by Pine Bluff police and the FBI after authorities received a tip that he was staying in Arkansas with a relative. Police believe O'Neal is one of three assailants who took part in at least four carjackings and kidnappings in the San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas areas.

A fugitive wanted in connection with a slaying, a stabbing and an armed robbery in Washington state and California may now be in Orange County, authorities said Tuesday. Antonio Magana Castro, 27, described as armed and "extremely dangerous," may be in Southern California and possibly Westminster, where he once lived and still has family, according to officials with the Skagit County Sheriff's Department in Washington state.

A 14-year-old Berkeley boy took $120,000 in drug money and treated himself and friends to a three-day spending spree that ended with a trip to Hawaii, authorities said. The three teen-agers' life of leisure ended when Kauai police, alerted to their flight, picked them up on a beach Jan. 10 and recovered $111,000, police and school officials said.

Seventeen people from California have been charged with the takeover robberies of two Southland computer firms, including the largest heist of computer chips in U.S. history, authorities said. Those charged are linked to "Asian organized crime syndicates" that have been pillaging California's high-tech computer firms, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Christopher D. Johnson.