Five notorious men on the FBI's Most Wanted lists

Americans-at-large Robert William Fisher (L) and Jason Derek Brown are on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list after killing in cold-blood. -- PHOTO: FBI
Americans-at-large Robert William Fisher (L) and Jason Derek Brown are on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list after killing in cold-blood. -- PHOTO: FBI

The long arm of the law finally caught up with Islamic militant Khair Mundos on Wednesday, when he was arrested in Manila after a manhunt that lasted years.

Mundo, who was on the FBI's Most Wanted list and had a bounty of US$500,000 on his head, was described as a "key leader and financier" of the Abu Sayyaf, a Filipino Islamic extremist group responsible for carrying out bombings and mass kidnappings.

The FBI maintains lists for fugitives divided into categories such as Ten Most Wanted, Most Wanted Terrorists, Cyber's Most Wanted and Crimes Against Children. To date, the list has reached 502 fugitives, with 471 captured or located.

Here are the five most notorious criminals still at large.

1. Victor Manuel Garena

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An American of Puerto Rican descent, 55-year-old Garena is the fugitive to have spent the most time on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. He also has the largest bounty - up to US$1 million (S$1.25 millions) - among the infamous 10 placed on his head.

Known for his connection to the notorious Los Macheteros (a clandestine Puerto Rican organisation working towards gaining independence from the United States), Garena committed armed robbery of approximately US$7 million in September 1983 at an armored car depot when he took two security employees hostage at gunpoint, handcuffed and bound them and injected them with an unknown substance in order to disable them.

The crime is known popularly as the Wells Fargo robbery. Garena has not been seen in three decades since the heist.

Interesting fact: He is the only member out of the 17 suspects identified in the heist's aftermath who remains at large.

2. Jason Derek Brown

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Considered armed and extremely dangerous by the FBI, Brown, 44, is wanted for murder and armed robbery in Phoenix, Arizona. In November 2004, while hooded to mask his identity, he fatally shot an armoured truck guard five times in the head before fleeing with a bag containing US$56,000 in cash.

The FBI had come close to capturing Brown numerous times, but described him as becoming a "ghost" and going completely off-the-grid. He made it to the list in December 2007, with the most recent sighting of him being in 2008 near the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City.

A US$200,000 reward has been offered - the second most on the top 10 list.

Interesting fact: An educated man, Brown speaks fluent French, is an avid golfer and has a master's degree in International Business.

3. Abdul Rahman Yasin

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Indiana-born, Iraqi-raised Yasin helped make the bombs used in the 1993 World Trade Centre attack, which killed six, injured more than a thousand and caused significant collateral damage.

The truck bomb had been meant to knock down both towers and kill tens of thousands of people, but failed and detonated only below the North Tower. While Yasin was taken in by the FBI along with another accomplice for questioning, he was released soon after and returned to Iraq.

He was later indicted for the attack and placed on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2001. Last seen in a prison interview on TV in 2002, a reward of US$5 million is being offered for information on his whereabouts.

Interesting fact: Yasin is an epileptic

4. Robert William Fisher

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Fisher, now 53, allegedly shot his wife in the back of the head, slit the throats of his two young children then blew up the Scottsdale, Arizona, house they lived in in April 2001.
The initial explosion resulted in a 6m-high blaze and was reportedly strong enough to collapse the front brick wall and rattle the frames of neighbouring houses within a 800m radius.

The outdoor enthusiast was placed on the Ten Most Wanted list in June 2002, with a US$100,000 bounty. Countless leads had been received by the FBI over the years to little success, with speculation leaning towards him having committed suicide or starting a new life under an assumed identity.

Interesting fact: Fisher has been said to sometimes walk in an odd, erect manner with his chest out due to back pain.

5. Semion Mogilevich

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One of two on the Ten Most Wanted list not accused of murder, Mogilevich was instead involved in a US$150-million scheme between 1993 and 1998 to defraud thousands of investors in a Canadian company that claimed to sell magnets.

Believed to be in his early to mid 60s, Mogilevich - who was born in Ukraine but believed to hold several passports - was indicted in 2003. FBI believes him to be the leader of the Red Mafia, a notorious Russian mob family where he was involved in weapons trafficking (possibly on the nuclear scale), contract murders and prostitution.

Interesting fact: Former chief of the Ukranian security service Leonid Derkach has claimed that Mogilevich has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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