A suspected double bomber on the FBI's most wanted list who vanished for 21 years is due in court this week to decide if he will be sent back to the United States to face trial.

The FBI believe Daniel Andreas San Diego has links to animal rights extremist groups and is their prime suspect for a series of bombings in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003.

Former FBI agents have said there were missed opportunities to arrest the 47-year-old before he vanished and claim they found a suspected bomb-making factory in his abandoned car after what detectives called a 65-mile (104km) rush-hour chase in California.

Mr San Diego was found 5,000 miles (8,000km) away in a cottage in north Wales last year.

Mr San Diego, who had a $250,000 (£199,000) bounty on his head, faces a five-day extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court in London on Monday to find out if the UK will hand him over to the United States to answer a federal arrest warrant.

The former fugitive, the first born-and-raised American on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list, has been indicted by US prosecutors for maliciously damaging and destroying by means of an explosive after two separate attacks in 2003.

Animal rights extremist group Revolutionary Cells - Animal Liberation Brigade claimed responsibility for the attacks on firms they believed had links with organisations that tested products on animals.

Former FBI Special Agent David Smith was part of a special operations group that had been watching Mr San Diego. He was remarkable by being unremarkable, Mr Smith noted.

The FBI felt it had enough intelligence to suggest Mr San Diego was its prime suspect and thought he was responsible for the devices that detonated a month apart. But the decision was made to develop more information rather than arrest him immediately, which allowed him to slip through their fingers.

Once the FBI lost track of San Diego, they believed he had fled to Central or South America. However, he had been living in Wales, under the name Danny Webb, until his arrest by the UK's National Crime Agency in November 2024.

FBI Director Christopher Wray stated, “Daniel San Diego's arrest after more than 20 years as a fugitive for two bombings in the San Francisco area shows that no matter how long it takes, the FBI will find you and hold you accountable.”

San Diego is currently being held at the high-security Belmarsh Prison in London and has declined to comment on the case.