On 28 July 1972, Urrutikoetxea was involved in the robbery of a van carrying foreign currency for the Bank of Biscay in Pasaia (Guipúzcoa), seizing more 12,000,000 pesetas.

On 21 January 1973, along with other members of ETA, Urrutikoetxea planned attacks that would use their available supply of more than 3,000 kilograms of dynamite and various explosive materials.

Urrutikoetxea was sent to Fresnes Prison, near Paris, and later was extradited to Spain, where he was freed when it was ruled that he had been wrongly convicted in France regarding his membership and financing of ETA and the other crimes of which he had been accused.

[1] The Office of the Public Prosecutor of the National Hearing Solicitor in July 1993 sentenced Urrutikoetxea to an additional twelve years of prison for being in charge of the international apparatus of ETA from 1984 until his arrest in 1989.

[1] Judge Javier Gomez de Liaño, of Spain's Audiencia Nacional, ordered Urrutikoetxea 's detention.

In June 1996, he was declared guilty of being in charge of the 1986 Plaza República Dominicana bombing in Madrid, which killed twelve civil guards.

In October 1996, Jose Rego maintained that Urrutikoetxea was the head of ETA in 1987, which led to four more cases against him in the Audiencia Nacional.