- Created in 1950 as a venture between the FBI and the nation’s news media, the list shows the US’ most dangerous criminals who might be otherwise overlooked
- Since its inception, the list has seen hundreds of fugitives – whether they be Mexican drug lords or cold-blooded killers – tracked down and brought to justice
- After amassing 529 names in 53 years, seven remain at-large – and stand accused of horrific crimes ranging from kidnapping, sex-trafficking, and murder
The FBI‘s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list has long instilled fear in the American public, chronicling the deeds of some of the nation’s most dangerous criminals for decades.
Created in 1950 as a joint campaign between the bureau and the nation’s news media, the list lays bare dangerous individuals who might be otherwise overlooked.
Since its inception, the list has seen hundreds of fugitives – whether they be Mexican drug lords, cold-blooded killers or scammers – tracked down and brought to justice.
After massing 529 names in 53 years, seven today remain at-large – and stand accused of horrific crimes ranging from kidnapping, sex-trafficking, and murder.
Six of those offenders, as usually is the case with the list, are men, while one is a woman accused of perpetrating a $4billion Ponzi scheme with her now defunct crypto company. The remaining three – a Mexican cartel kingpin, child porn provider, and an alleged murderer – were all captured in the past year.
Alexis Flores – Kidnapped and murdered a five-year-old
Wanted for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murder of a five-year-old girl in Philadelphia, 47-year-old Honduran man Alexis Flores remains at large nearly a quarter-century after his horrific crimes,
The girl, five-year-old Iriana DeJesus, was reported missing in late July of 2000, and later found strangled to death in a nearby apartment in early August of 2000.
Feds say Flores carried out the killing while posing as homeless drifter, before being given shelter, clothing, and work as a handyman by Hunting Park, Philadelphia, resident Jorge Contreras near the victim’s residence.
Five days after the girl was reported missing, Iriana’s body was found in the basement of an empty apartment building where Flores is believed to have stayed.
Investigators said the girl was found sexually assaulted, strangled and wrapped in a trash bag.
At the scene, cops also found a bloodstained t-shirt bearing a distinct logo, which Contreras later told officers he recognized as one of the articles he had lent Flores
Following the discovery, Flores vanished from the area – before being arrested two years later for shoplifting in Arizona for which he received a 60 days sentence, completed in 2005.
He was then extradited to Honduras – though within a year, DNA evidence would link him to the scene of Iriana’s murder. At that point, both a local and federal arrest warrant was issued for his arrest, and his name was added to the Top 10 list.
There is currently a $100,000 reward for his capture.
Yulan Adonay Archaga Carias – Boss of MS-13 crime family
The Federal Bureau of Investigation also offered a $100,000 reward for information to hunt down a fugitive MS-13 gang leader, named Yulan Andony Archaga Carías – thought that number has since swelled 50-fold.
He is thought to be in Honduras after being indicted in November 2021 for cocaine trafficking.
The hearing in Manhattan federal court saw Carías, 39, charged in absentia with racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to import cocaine, and possessing and conspiring to possess machine guns.
Carías, who goes by the aliases of Alexander Mendoza and Porky, allegedly controlled the MS-13’s criminal operations in Honduras, while supplying support and resources to the gang’s sprawling network throughout Central America and the US.
This past February, citing the perpetrators’ powerful position in one of the world’s most dangerous organized crime operations, feds raised the reward for information leading to his capture to $5 million. He has yet to be found.
Bhadreshkumar Chetanbhai Patel – murdered wife in donut shop
Added to the list in 2017, Indian national Bhadreshkumar Chetanbhai, now 32, allegedly stabbed and killed his wife in a doughnut shop in Maryland in 2015.
He was last seen taking a shuttle to Pennsylvania Station in Newark, and faces a federal charge of fleeing a state to avoid prosecution.
Police said an investigation revealed the Indian national hit his then 21-year-old wife in the face with a kitchen knife and then fled the Hanover store.
A taxi driver told investigators that she picked up Patel on April 12 across from the Dunkin’ Donuts and drove him to a Best Western in Newark, New Jersey, approximately 185 miles away, according to WTOP.
Investigators believe he fled to New Jersey to escape state charges, but they believe he is still in the United States.
They have no evidence that he boarded plane and the FBI put a hold on Patel’s passport, preventing him from crossing the border.
Patel was born in India and was in the United States legally on a visa, but his visa expired at the end of March, according to the FBI.
The FBI plans to put up billboards to help locate Patel, who is described as weighing approximately 165lb and 5ft 9in tall with brown eyes and hair.
According to authorities, Patel is considered to be dangerous, and could have connections to Canada, Georgia, Illinois, India, Kentucky, and New Jersey.
Alejandro Rosales Castillo – Murdered ex-girlfriend
The youngest on the list, Alejandro Rosales Castillo is wanted in connection with the August 2016 murder of a 23-year-old woman, Truc Quan ‘Sandy’ Ly Le, whom he previously dated.
The two became acquainted while working together at a restaurant in Charlotte. He was 18 at the time, and is now 25
The investigation initially began after the families of Le, Castillo, and his accomplice all filed missing persons reports days before the victim’s body was found and identified.
Le and Castillo are said to have met while working together at a restaurant in North Carolina’s largest city..
A joint investigation by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) and the FBI revealed that Castillo had borrowed money from Le. He later arranged a meeting with the victim on the premise of repaying her.
Text messages uncovered by authorities showed that the two had agreed to meet in Charlotte on August 9, 2016.
The FBI cites CMPD Det Brent Koeck as stating that, upon meeting, Castillo had ordered Le withdraw a large sum of money from an ATM.
Investigators estimate that Castillo drove the victim to a wooded area before she was shot in the head.
Le’s body was found in a remote area outside Charlotte on August 17, 2016.
Law enforcement official believe Castillo and Ahmia ‘Mia’ Feaster, who had also worked with the victim and suspect, fled the state in Le’s vehicle and later crossed the US border into Mexico.
The getaway car was found at a bus stop in Phoenix, Arizona.
Surveillance footage captured images of Castillo crossing the border into Mexico, according to the FBI.
Ruja Ignatova – self-professed ‘crypto-queen’
This past summer, 42-year-old Ruja Ignatova became the latest women to grace the list, after feds said the self-professed ‘crypto queen’ scammed investors out of more than $4billion, with a Ponzi scheme though her now-defunct company, OneCoin.
Vanishing into thin air in 2017, the Bulgarian-born fraudster is still-at large, with officials offering $100,000 for information on her whereabouts.
She was added to the list in June, after she allegedly defrauded investors with her $4 billion cryptocurrency pyramid scheme.
The Department of Justice charges she used her OneCoin cryptocurrency as a multi-level marketing scam, targeting investors in several different countries between 2014 and 2018.
Investigators believe Ignatova fled after a U.S. District Court in New York issued a warrant for her arrest, after receiving a tip about the federal as they were filed
The alleged scammer promptly traveled to Greece and disappeared, and is still wanted five years later.
Special Agent Ronald Shimko, the lead investigator in the case, said he hopes the publicity of being on the most wanted list will help track down Ignatova.
‘There are so many victims all over the world who were financially devastated by this,’ Shimko said earlier this year as she was added to the list after several years at-large. ‘We want to bring her to justice.’
Arnoldo Jimenez – ‘Stabbed wife to death’
Arnoldo Jimenez, 37, is accused of stabbing his wife Estrella Carrera, 26, more than 18 times in his Maserati after they got into a fight as they were travelling home from their wedding reception in the early hours of May 12, 2012.
They were married at Chicago City Hall on May 11 and celebrated afterwards with family and friends.
Following the stabbing, he allegedly then dragged her body into the bathtub of her suburban Chicago apartment.
Carrera was found dead the following day wearing the silver sequined cocktail dress she had on during her wedding reception.
Afterwards, police say his brother drove him to Mexico then returned with the car to Illinois.
He was arrested for a separate, drug case and police discovered the vehicle in his garage during that raid but they have never caught the groom.
The FBI believes Jimenez may have fled to Durango, Mexico, specifically around Santiago Papasquiaro, immediately after Carrera’s death.
They claimed that he is also a regular visitor to the border city of Reynosa. Fed are offering up to a $100,000 reward for information leading to Jimenez’s arrest.
Omar Alexander Cardenas – Cartel boss
The last remaining at-large fugitive on the list, Omar Alexander Cardenas, is wanted for his alleged involvement in the murder of a man outside a barbershop in Los Angeles in 2019.
He is allegedly a member of the Pierce Street gang and may associate with the gang known as Pacoima Van Nuys Boys – Anybody Killas, according to the FBI – two California-based cartels with known drug operations.
After he was added to the lists last July, LAPD Chief Michel Moore hailed the FBI for taking steps to aid in the fugitive’s captures.
‘This murder occurred in a strip mall, where people come to shop and engage with their neighbors at the barber shop, impacting an entire community,’ Moore said at the time.
‘I want to thank our partners at the FBI for adding this murder to their Top 10 Most Wanted list, bringing awareness to the violence committed by Omar Cardenas and to prevent this murderer from harming anyone else.
‘Senseless acts of violence, particularly gun violence like this, needs to stop and we need the public’s help.’
Feds are offering a reward a $100,000 for information leading to his capture.
Michael James Pratt – ‘Sex trafficker and child porn purveyor’
A self-professed porn king from Australia, Michael James Pratt was wanted on sex trafficking and child pornographic charges for his involvement in an illegal sex ring that made him nearly $25million.
Pratt, 39, created the ‘GirlsDoPorn’ website while living in Brisbane in 2006 – before moving to the United States and creating the multi-million dollar empire.
Pratt was accused sex trafficking and the production of child pornography, with the FBI at the time offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to his arrest.
US authorities allege Pratt along with his New Zealand business partner, childhood friend Matthew Isaac Wolfe and ‘adult film performer’ Ruben Andre Garcia used deception and false promises to lure the alleged victims.
Twenty-two female victims, identified as Jane Doe 1 to 22, filed a civil lawsuit that they were fooled into participating in pornography under the false promise they wouldn’t appear online, prompting an FBI investigation.
Charges were laid and a 99-day trial ensued with Superior Court Judge Kevin Enright in 2020 ordering the trio to pay the women more than $18million. In December, Pratt was captured, after about a half year on the run, in Madrid, Spain.
A trial date has yet to be set.
Rafael Caro-Quintero – Mexican drug trafficker
Caught last July, Infamous Mexican drug baron Rafael Caro Quintero – who ordered the kidnap and murder of a US drug enforcement agent in 1985 – was cuffed eight years after fleeing jail and unleashing a vicious turf war with rival drug lords.
He was arrested in Choix, a municipality in the western state of Sinaloa. It comes almost a decade after he walked out of a Mexican prison and went straight back to drug trafficking.
Caro Quintero walked free in 2013, after 28 years in prison, when a court overturned his 40-year sentence for the 1985 kidnapping and killing of US Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena. The brutal murder marked a low point in US-Mexico relations.
The former leader of the Guadalajara Cartel, Caro Quintero had since returned to drug trafficking and unleashed bloody turf battles in the northern Mexico border state of Sonora.
He and the cartel are portrayed in the Netflix series, ‘Narcos: Mexico.’ Actor Tenoch Huerta Mejia played Caro Quintero in the series.
Caro Quintero was arrested after a search dog named Max found him hiding in brush in the town of San Simon in Sinaloa state during a joint operation by the navy and the attorney general’s office, a navy statement said.
The site was in the mountains near Sinaloa’s frontier with the northern border state of Chihuahua. A navy helicopter crashed during the mission.
He has since been extradited to the US to stand trial.
Jose Rodolfo Villarreal-Hernandez – Murder-for-hire
Wanted for allegedly instructing individuals to track and murder a 43-year-old man in Texas, Jose Rodolfo Villarreal-Hernandez is the latest to captured on the list, apprehended in Mexico City on January 7.
His arrest came less than three months after he was added on, with a reward of up to $1,000,000 for information leading to his capture.
The murder-for-hire plot was allegedly carried out on May 22, 2013, and saw Juan Jesús Guerrero Chapa, the acting head of Gulf cartel, killed by two assassins allegedly hired in a suspected hit.
Villareal is the brother of Rodolfo Villareal Hernandez, known as ‘El Gato,’ the reputed regional head of a rivaling cartel in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon.
