A suspect in more than a dozen bank and credit union robberies in several New England states near the Interstate 91 corridor was arrested yesterday in connection with one of the robberies.

Taylor Dziczek, 30, of Chicopee, was arrested after a federal criminal complaint charged him with robbing a Connecticut bank earlier this year, the Connecticut U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement. The complaint alleges that Dziczek is also a suspect in other bank robberies that have occurred in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire since September 2021.

Dziczek appeared yesterday in Hartford federal court and was ordered detained, the statement said.

According to the U.S. attorney’s office, the FBI and state and local law enforcement have been investigating 14 robberies and one attempted robbery of banks and credit unions in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire. The robberies occurred between September 2021 and August 2022, the statement said, and appeared to be committed by the same individual.

The investigation by law enforcement identified Dziczek as a suspect in a People’s United Bank robbery in Plainville, Connecticut, on May 26, 2022. Prosecutors allege that Dziczek entered the bank, approached the teller counter and gave the teller a note with words to the effect of: “I have a gun. Don’t call 911. Don’t set off any alarms.” When the teller said she did not have any more money, Dziczek allegedly pulled what appeared to be a black firearm from the front pocket of his sweatshirt and made additional statements, including “Give me all the money,” “I have a gun,” and “Don‘t be a hero,” according to the U.S. attorney’s statement.

Dziczek allegedly removed some of the paper money wrappers from the money he received from the teller and discarded them at the bank before he fled the scene. Plainville Police detectives collected the discarded money wrappers as evidence.

The U.S. attorney’s statement said that on Oct. 21, 2022, FBI special agents surveilled Dziczek while he was in the MGM Casino in Springfield and retrieved a Red Bull energy drink can with a black straw from which Dziczek had been observed drinking. Laboratory analysis connected DNA found on the black straw to DNA found on discarded money wrappers from the Plainville bank robbery, according to the statement.

The FBI in February had linked a single suspect to several bank robberies in Massachusetts, including at Arrha Credit Union in West Springfield, Workers Credit Union in Athol, Greenfield Cooperative Bank in Montague, Franklin First Federal Credit Union in Greenfield. Other connected robberies along the Interstate 91 corridor were in Enfield, Windsor, Somers, Avon, and East Windsor, Connecticut; Brattleboro, Vermont; and Keene, New Hampshire.