A Brighton man dubbed the “Incognito Bandit’’ was arrested Friday evening at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia shortly before he was to board a flight to South Africa, according to a press release from the US attorney’s office.

Albert Taderera, 36, is allegedly the masked man behind 16 bank robberies in the MetroWest and Greater Boston areas since February 2015, prosecutors said.

In most of the robberies, a man walked into a bank wearing all black with a mask or sunglasses covering his face and brandished what tellers described as a black semiautomatic handgun, according to the news release.

Many of the robberies took place at suburban, freestanding banks near wooded areas or foliage.

On multiple occasions, witnesses observed the robber entering the woods after leaving the banks, or fleeing in a black BMW sedan. Federal authorities believed that the owner of the BMW was responsible for the robberies based on the similarities.

On March 16, Concord police observed the black BMW sitting outside of a local bank and, because the registration was revoked, towed and inventoried it.

On Wednesday, a man identifying himself as Taderera called the tow company to ask about the BMW and was informed that it was in police custody.

On Thursday, the FBI learned that Taderera had booked a flight scheduled to leave Friday from Virginia to Addis Ababa,Ethiopia, at 11 a.m.

Taderera flew from Boston to Dulles, then the FBI learned that he had changed his plans and was instead planning to board a flight at 5:45 p.m. that was headed for Johannesburg, South Africa.

He was arrested before he could board the flight and was charged by criminal complaint with the Oct. 7, 2017, robbery of a branch of TD Bank in Wayland.

He is scheduled to appear in US District Court in the District of Eastern Virginia on March 27.

JACOB GEANOUS

GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

Jacob Geanous can be reached at jacobgeanous@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jacob_geanous.