Three FBI Most Wanted fugitive arrests in two months signal return to 'premier' agency: former agent
The FBI has had prompt success capturing fugitives since President Trump took office, according to Director Kash Patel.
Patel announced on Tuesday that the FBI has apprehended three fugitives from the agency's 10 Most Wanted list since Jan. 20.
"This is the FBI that I was proud to work for, and I'm really excited to see that they have already arrested several of the FBI's Most Wanted fugitives," former FBI agent and Fox News contributor Nicole Parker told Fox News Digital. "When President Trump took over in 2017 in his first administration, I was a violent crime agent in Miami, and I specifically remember that he said that his top priority was to focus on violent criminals."
Parker believes that in his second term, Trump's "focus" is what "Americans care about most: making America safe, focusing on violent crime and taking the most violent criminals off the street."
Patel on Tuesday said the FBI, Justice Department and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi "have captured our third fugitive on the Ten Most Wanted list since January 20, 2025."
"When you let good cops be good cops, this is what happens."
"That's not an accident," Patel wrote on X. "When you let good cops be good cops, this is what happens. This administration is giving the new FBI and AG Bondi the resources to get the job done — and we won't stop."
Parker said the new leadership will "make the FBI, in my opinion, the number one, premier law enforcement agency again."
The FBI told Fox News Digital that the three fugitives captured since January are as follows:
Roman-Bardales, 47, is an alleged MS-13 key senior leader accused of racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to provide and conceal material support and resources to terrorists, narco-terrorism conspiracy and alien smuggling conspiracy.
Authorities took Roman-Bardales into custody in Mexico on Monday, then extradited to the United States for legal proceedings.
"FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Roman-Bardales has been extradited to the United States to be held accountable for the extreme and depraved violence and terror his leadership of MS-13 allegedly brought to the streets of the United States and across North America," FBI Acting Assistant Director in Charge for the New York Field Office Leslie Backschies said in a statement after his arrest. "The FBI, along with our law enforcement partners are committed to eradicating MS-13 and all violent transnational criminal organizations wherever they operate as we protect our nation."
A second Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitive was arrested in Mexico on Jan. 30.
Arnoldo Jimenez is accused of murdering his wife, who was found dead in the bathtub of their apartment, less than 48 hours after they were married in Burbank, Illinois, in 2012. He is also accused of fleeing to avoid prosecution.
"The FBI is extremely appreciative of the Burbank Police Department, our law enforcement partners in Mexico, and the public for their tremendous investigative efforts and collaboration in the capture of Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Arnoldo Jimenez," Douglas S. DePodesta, special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago Field Office, said in a statement. "The FBI will use all of its available resources to bring criminals to justice, no matter how much time has passed or where they may be in the world."
The first FBI 10 Most Wanted fugitive arrest under the Trump administration took place in Florida in January, when Lady Lake Police Sgt. Michelle Bilbrey arrested 60-year-old Donald Eugene Fields II during a routine traffic stop on Jan. 25.
Fields is charged with child sex trafficking and child rape charges in federal and state court. He is accused of knowingly attempting to recruit, entice, provide, patronize and solicit a minor into engaging in a commercial sex act from about January 2013 until June 2017.
"Thanks to proactive policing by the Lady Lake Police Department, one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted fugitives has been captured," said FBI St. Louis Special Agent in Charge Ashley Johnson said in a statement.
"[I]t shows me that Kash Patel is serious…"
Earlier this month, Atlanta police identified and detained Justin Smith, who is not on the Top 10 list but is on the FBI's general Most Wanted list.
Smith allegedly shot his pregnant girlfriend in the head multiple times in Philadelphia in 2021, killing her and her unborn child.
"This is what we need. We need to hold these individuals accountable," Parker said. "To take several of them off of the streets within two months is absolutely phenomenal. I am so excited to see what is in store for the FBI over the next three and a half years. Again, we're only two months into it, and for this to have already occurred, it shows me that Kash Patel is serious when he says, 'Let good cops be good cops.' Let's let them just do their jobs."
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