A 32-year-old man suspected in a string of 18 takeover-style robberies attributed to the “River Rat Bandit” could make his first court appearance this afternoon.

A task force of law enforcement agencies arrested Alexey Perez Hernandez on Friday night. He was booked into Pierce County Jail early Saturday and is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon.

“He was obviously a menace to the financial institutions,” Puyallup police Lt. Scott Engle said today.

On Friday, Pierce County prosecutors charged Hernandez with two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of attempted first-degree robbery. A warrant was issued for his arrest and he was taken into custody as he left a house near Bonney Lake several hours later.

Investigators believe he’s the so-called “River Rat Bandit,” who is believed to be responsible for taking upwards of $118,000 in at least 18 robberies of banks and check-cashing stores in Washington and Oregon, including several heists in Puyallup, Auburn and Kent, between Aug. 7 and Oct.2. A man believed to be the robber’s accomplice was arrested Saturday during a traffic stop in the Portland area, Puyallup police reported.

The man, thought to be the getaway driver in the Portland-Vancouver-area robberies, is a former City of Wilkeson police reserve officer and former Lakewood casino manager, Engle said. He’s being held in Multnomah County Jail on suspicion of five counts of robbery.

Hernandez was identified as a suspect in the heists after a fingerprint lifted from a calendar touched by the robber during a Sept. 14 heist at a Kent check-cashing store matched Hernandez. A copy of his driver’s license photo matched the surveillance photos from robberies in Portland and Vancouver, Pierce County charging documents state.

“The DOL photo looked like the pictures from our robbery,” Kent police detective Sgt. Dina Paganucci said today. “We believed they were one and the same.”

Pierce County prosecutors have charged Hernandez with an Aug. 24 robbery at Columbia Bank, 618 S. Meridian, in Puyallup and Sept. 2 robbery at the Loan Mart in Puyallup. He was also charged with trying to rob the same Loan Mart on Sept. 10.

Court documents provide the following information …

During the Aug. 24 robbery, the robber entered Columbia Bank, waived a revolver and pointed it at employees. The bandit demanded money and repeatedly told the tellers, “No buttons! No buttons!”

The robber put cash in his backpack, ordered employees to the floor at gunpoint and then left. Law enforcement followed a tracking device that was with the money. They found it a short time later, discarded.

During the Sept. 2 robbery at Loan Mart, the bandit jumped over the front counter while armed with a gun. He demanded money, then ordered an employee to go to the bathroom and stay there. The employee waited 15 minutes, then came out and called 911.

Officers again responded to the Loan Mart on Sept. 10. The front door had been locked because of the previous robbery. An employee reported that the same robber knocked on the door. She refused to open the door and then called police.

Puyallup police investigators said Monday that Hernandez and his accomplice appeared to have committed the robberies out of financial need. Hernandez, a painter by trade, was having trouble finding jobs because of felony domestic violence convictions in King County, Engle said. The accomplice, meanwhile, was living in the Portland-Vancouver area and managing a couple of pizza shops.

The two and a woman met at a Lakewood casino. The woman is the former girlfriend of the accomplice and the current girlfriend of Hernandez, Engle said. She’s not been arrested in the robbery spree.

Hernandez was living at the Bonney Lake-area property which was owned by the accomplice and the woman, Engle said.

Engle said the fingerprint identification was critical to cracking the case. Despite media attention in two states and a $15,000 reward, no tipsters had identified the “River Rat Bandit.”

The fingerprint – left when the robber touched his ungloved hand to the calendar of the Kent store while jumping over the counter -  led to Friday night’s arrest.

“The fingerprint was critical to this case,” Engle said.

UPDATE: Hernandez was arraigned this afternoon. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was ordered held in lieu of $5 million bail.