thumb|alt=A color photograph of a man with a moustache wearing tinted glasses, a white undershirt, and a yellow overshirt in front of a white wall|On May 19, 1996, [[Leslie Isben Rogge (pictured here in 1973) became the first person on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list to be apprehended due to the FBI's then-new home page on the internet.]]
The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is a most wanted list maintained by the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service (the predecessor of the United Press International) editor-in-chief, who were discussing ways to promote capture of the FBI's "toughest guys". This discussion turned into a published article, which received so much positive publicity that on March 14, 1950, the FBI officially announced the list to increase law enforcement's ability to capture dangerous fugitives. The first person added to the list was Thomas J. Holden, a robber and member of the Holden–Keating Gang on the day of the list's inception. The oldest person to be added to the list was Eugene Palmer on May 29, 2019, at 80 years old. On rare occasions, the FBI will add a "Number Eleven" if that individual is extremely dangerous but the Bureau does not feel any of the current ten should be removed. Despite occasional references in the media, the FBI does not rank their list; no suspect is considered "#1 on the FBI's Most Wanted List" or "The Most Wanted". and Robert Van Wisse in 2017. On May 18, 1996, after surrendering at the U.S. embassy in Guatemala City, Leslie Isben Rogge became the first person on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list to be apprehended due to the FBI's then-new home page on the internet. The FBI maintains other lists of individuals, including the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists, along with crime alerts, missing persons, and other fugitive lists.
On June 17, 2013, the list reached a cumulative total of 500 fugitives having been listed. As of April 14, 2026, 541 fugitives had been listed, thirteen of them women (2%), and 502 of them were captured or located (93%), 164 (31%) of them due to public assistance.
New additions
The Criminal Investigative Division (CID) at FBI Headquarters calls upon all 56 Field Offices to submit candidates for the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list. The nominees received are reviewed by special agents in the CID and the Office of Public Affairs. remained on the list until May 9, 2012, despite no longer being at large. Osama bin Laden similarly remained on the list for almost a year after his death at the hands of U.S. forces on May 2, 2011.
On occasion, fugitives have been added to the list at the request of local law enforcement. For example, Bureau director Clarence M. Kelley added Twymon Myers to the list in 1973 at the request of New York City police commissioner Donald Cawley.
Former lists
List as of May 2026
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Rewards are offered for information leading to capture of fugitives on the list; the reward is a minimum of $1,000,000 (until March 2026: $250,000; May 2023: $100,000) for all fugitives.
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| Archaga Carias is charged federally in the Southern District of New York with racketeering conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and possession and conspiracy to possess machine guns. As the alleged leader of MS-13 for all of Honduras, Archaga Carias allegedly controlled MS-13 criminal activity in Honduras and provided support and resources to the MS-13 enterprise in Central America and the United States with firearms, narcotics, and cash. Archaga Carias is also allegedly responsible for supporting multi-ton loads of cocaine through Honduras to the United States and for ordering and participating in murders of rival gang members and others associated with MS-13. The reward for information leading to his capture was increased to $5 million on February 8, 2023.
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| Ignatova is wanted for her alleged leadership of a massive fraud scheme called OneCoin. She was last seen in October 2017 in Athens, Greece, and has ties to her birthplace of Bulgaria and Germany. The reward for information leading to her capture was increased to $5 million on June 26, 2024.
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| Cardenas is wanted for his alleged involvement in the murder of a man outside a barbershop in Los Angeles, California, in the summer of 2019.
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| Wilver Villegas-Palomino is a member of the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN)), a transnational criminal organization and foreign terrorist organization. He is charged with narcoterrorism, international cocaine distribution conspiracy, and international cocaine distribution. United States Department of State Narcotics Rewards Program is offering up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest and/or his conviction.
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| Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, the alleged leader of the Meza-Flores Transnational Criminal Organization, is wanted for a series of drug-related crimes. He allegedly conspired to manufacture and distribute cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana in the United States from 2005 to 2019.
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| Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano is believed to be a senior leader for Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal organization from Venezuela. He is charged with international cocaine distribution, providing material support for terrorists and conspiracy.
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| Trung Duc Lu is wanted in connection with the August 2014 torture, kidnapping, and murder of two Vietnamese brothers who had been engaged in drug dealing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A third male was also tortured and kidnapped, but managed to survive the attack. He is believed to be in Vietnam.
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| Anibal Alexander Canelon Aguirre is wanted for allegedly leading a large international conspiracy that deploys numerous crews to the United States to steal millions of dollars from financial institutions in support of Tren de Aragua. Canelon Aguirre and other members of the conspiracy are alleged to have unlawfully enriched themselves by committing ATM jackpotting, a scheme where malware is installed on ATMs to force the unauthorized withdrawal of cash, after which the stolen cash flows through a complex money laundering network.
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| KaShawn Nicola Roper was wanted for her alleged involvement in a shooting on August 23, 2020, in Kansas City, Missouri. During an altercation, it is alleged that Roper fired multiple shots at a car which struck two female victims, resulting in the death of one of them. She was captured in High Springs, Florida, on April 15, 2026.
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See also
References
External links
- FBI Tip Line
- Ten most wanted fugitives list is turning 65 years old – FBI news blog