#BREAKING FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Alejandro Rosales Castillo Captured in Mexico. @FBICharlotte Special Agent in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr., and @CMPD Chief Estella D. Patterson announces the capture of Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Alejandro “Alex” Rosales Castillo.
Castle… pic.twitter.com/Xk368nfMBR— FBI Charlotte (@FBICharlotte)
January 17, 2026
American media claim that the man had a brief relationship with his victim, then 23 years old, from whom he asked to borrow money.
He summoned her to pay the debt, but instead it is presumed that he kidnapped her, forced her to withdraw her savings from an ATM and then took her to a wooded area where he shot her in the head before throwing her body into a ravine.
The man “has a red card and an arrest warrant for extradition purposes,” is accused of “first-degree murder, robbery with a weapon, vehicle theft and kidnapping,” Mexico’s Secretary of Security, Omar García Harfuch, detailed on social network X.
Derived from intelligence work and the exchange of information with the @FBIelements of @SSPCMexico and @FGRMexico They carried out a coordinated deployment in Pachuca, Hidalgo, where Alejandro “N” was detained, who has a red card and an arrest warrant for the purpose of… pic.twitter.com/gZ8ybE85Pm
— Omar H Garcia Harfuch (@OHarfuch)
January 17, 2026
The US ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, wrote in X that this capture “reflects the impact of the joint effort” between the governments of both countries.
After being arrested in the central state of Hidalgo, Rosales Castillo was presented before the public ministry to begin his legal process.
Castillo was last seen in August 2016 crossing the border from Nogales, Arizona, into Mexico, and remained a fugitive for nearly nine years. During that period, federal agents and local forces developed multiple clues until they located him in Mexican territory.
The capture was carried out on January 16, 2026 in Pachuca, Hidalgo, in an operation coordinated by the Office of the Legal Attaché of the FBI in Mexico City, in conjunction with the Criminal Investigation Agency–INTERPOL (AIC-INTERPOL) and the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC). Subsequently, the detainee was transferred to Mexico City, where he remains in custody pending his extradition process to North Carolina.
He was included on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on October 24, 2017. In addition to the state warrant for first-degree murder issued in November 2016, a federal arrest warrant was issued for him in February 2017 for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
The FBI offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Rosales Castillo.
With information from AFP.
