The director of the FBI, Kash Patelfaces new accusations for allegedly manipulating arrest statistics to project an image of success during his tenure at the head of the country’s largest investigative agency.
During a Senate hearing this week, Patel boasted that the FBI has nearly doubled the number of arrests since he took office. and assured that the agency managed to capture eight of the ten most wanted fugitives in the world in record time. However, current and former FBI agents maintain that those numbers are inflated through internal changes driven directly by his administration.
The information was revealed by the American media MS NOW, which cites multiple police officials familiar with the new internal policies of the FBI.
According to the aforementioned media, the FBI began to count them as “own arrests” arrests made by other federal agencies or local police departments, as long as there was the presence or support of federal agents during the operations.
FBI would have doubled figures with immigration arrests
One of the most notable examples involves immigration operations led by ICE agents in cities like Minneapolis and Memphis. According to the sources consulted, thousands of migrant arrests were added to the official FBI statistics although the agency did not lead the cases.
“They are inflating the statistics and declaring arrests that they would not have declared before”said a current FBI official quoted in the report.
Another former official was even more direct: “Kash is manipulating things to inflate his stats.”
FBI spokesman Ben Williamson rejected the accusations and assured that the criticism seeks to discredit the work of law enforcement. “The claims are false and seek to divert the attention of the FBI and this administration,” he declared.
Patel has used these numbers to defend himself against growing questions about his leadership and behavior within the agency. At the Senate hearing he avoided responding directly to reports related to alleged excessive alcohol consumption, polygraph tests on agents and use of official resources for private trips.
Manipulation of the most wanted list
The report also points out thatThe FBI would have altered the historic list of the “Ten Most Wanted” to appear extraordinary results.
According to the research, several fugitives were added to the list just hours before being arrestedwhich allowed Patel to boast quick and effective catches.
The most striking case was that of Samuel Ramírez Jr., accused of double homicide and detained in Culiacán, Mexico, just an hour after being officially added to the list.
“They are simply nominating people they are already about to arrest,” said an FBI official quoted by the American media.
In addition to criticism for statistical manipulation, the FBI is going through a strong internal crisis. Data shared with the same media indicate that the agency lost around 2,800 agents in the last year, a figure much higher than the historical average of resignations.
Despite this, Patel defended his administration in front of the Senate and stated that “the mission has never been better.”
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