FBI Director Kash Patel highlighted what he described as a record-setting first year at the helm of the bureau during an appearance on Fox News last week, citing major gains in capturing fugitives from the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.
Patel appeared on “Hannity” after host Sean Hannity noted that the FBI has apprehended six of its Ten Most Wanted fugitives in just one year. Hannity compared this performance to the previous administration’s record of only capturing four fugitives from the list in four years.
Patel said the difference reflects a fundamental change in how the bureau operates.
“The simple juxtaposition is that there was a weaponized bureau, a politicized bureau to go after political targets including President Trump and myself, versus the bureau of today that goes based on law and facts and works with our prosecutors,” Patel said.
He said the FBI has placed approximately 1,000 additional agents into the field to focus on violent crime and fugitive apprehension.
“These agents are working around the clock and around the world to bring justice,” Patel said.
“That is why you see these record numbers. Six top 10 captures in one year, which has never been done before, and we’re just getting started,” he added.
The FBI announced the milestone following the January arrest of Ten Most Wanted fugitive Alejandro Rosales Castillo.
Patel joined FBI Charlotte Special Agent in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Chief Estella D. Patterson to announce Castillo’s return to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Castillo was captured in Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, on Jan. 16, 2026.
The FBI said its Legal Attaché Office in Mexico City coordinated with Agencia de Investigación Criminal-INTERPOL and Mexico’s Secretaría de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana to take Castillo into custody and secure his transfer to U.S. authorities.
Castillo was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on Oct. 24, 2017.
He is accused in the 2016 murder of 23-year-old Truc Quan Sandy Ly Le, whose body was found in a wooded area of Cabarrus County, North Carolina.
State charges were filed in Mecklenburg County in November 2016, including first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, robbery with a dangerous weapon, and larceny of a motor vehicle.
A federal arrest warrant was issued in February 2017 for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
“Alejandro Castillo is one of six Ten Most Wanted fugitives apprehended under this FBI in less than one year,” Patel said in a statement.
He credited President Donald Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and international law enforcement partners for the successful operation.
Patel made headlines in late January when the FBI announced that nearly 50 members and associates of the Latin Kings street gang had been arrested as part of a sweeping, multistate operation aimed at disrupting gang-related crime, drug trafficking, and violence across the United States.
The effort, dubbed “Operation Broken Crown,” involved more than a dozen FBI field offices working with federal, state, local and tribal law-enforcement partners over a three-month period, the bureau said.
Officials said agents seized more than a dozen firearms, nearly $200,000 in illicit funds and over 10 kilograms of cocaine, fentanyl and other narcotics during the operation, which began in October 2025.
FBI Director Kash Patel praised the operation’s results and said in a statement that the bureau will continue efforts to dismantle violent gangs and safeguard communities.
“Under President Trump’s and Attorney General Bondi’s leadership, this FBI is dismantling violent gang networks in America at a record clip — breaking their operations and saving lives in the process,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement to Fox News.
“In 2025 we saw a 210% increase in gang takedowns from MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, and now just weeks in to 2026, we’re announcing another 3 month takedown operation,” he continued.
Patel said the bureau “will continue working 24/7 to crush violent crime and eliminate networks facilitating harm on the American people.”
The arrests included alleged gang members charged with a range of offenses, including federal firearm and narcotics violations. In some cases, alleged Latin Kings members have also been charged in separate incidents, including federal complaints arising from the theft of a rifle from an FBI vehicle during another enforcement action.
In addition to the arrests, law-enforcement personnel serving search warrants in January in the Milwaukee area detained several gang members on drug trafficking and firearm possession charges, resulting in the seizure of additional weapons and cash.
The Latin Kings is one of the largest street gangs operating in multiple states, and federal officials said the arrests represent a coordinated step to disrupt its criminal networks and reduce the threat posed by organized gang activity.
