Kash Patel's FBI More Than Doubles Arrests in Hunt for Indian Country's Unsolved Violent Crimes

The FBI more than doubled its arrests this year in a six-month push to solve violent crimes on tribal lands that had gone unresolved.

Operation Not Forgotten sent FBI agents, analysts and support staff on rotating assignments to 12 field offices from April 1 through Sept. 30. The bureau focuses the surge on violence against women and children, including missing and murdered people. According to the Justice Department's results, the operation produced:

548 cases worked, up 59% from 2025.

118 arrests, up 123%.

41 people charged federally, up 52%.

25 child victims identified or located, and 72 weapons recovered.

Agents also conducted 990 interviews and 232 search operations.

On Thursday, FBI Director Kash Patel highlighted the results in Wyoming.

The numbers, side by side

Put the percentages back into counts and the jump is plain. Last year's surge made about 53 arrests and charged about 27 people. This year: 118 and 41.

It also beats the operation's whole history. The first three surges, 2023 through 2025, produced 249 arrests combined, the department said last November. This year's six months alone matched nearly half of that.

The cases are hard ones. When fiscal 2025 began, the FBI's Indian Country program had about 4,300 open investigations, including more than 900 death investigations and 1,000 child abuse cases.

"Operation Not Forgotten sends a loud and clear message that our long-forgotten partners in Indian Country are forgotten no more," Patel said in the department's announcement. He pointed to 400 agents dedicated to Indian Country, 30 Safe Trails Task Forces, and rewards the FBI quadrupled to at least $25,000 for tips on homicides, kidnappings and missing persons.

What it means in Wyoming

Wyoming has one reservation, Wind River, home to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes. The surge led to federal indictments of 18 people there for violent crimes and child abuse.

One is a murder case. Prosecutors say Jose Benito Ocon shot a male passenger in the head inside a moving vehicle near Riverton in August 2025, then turned the gun on two female witnesses. A grand jury indicted him on five felony counts, including first-degree murder. He faces mandatory life in prison if convicted.

In another, federal prosecutors charged Darlynn Sheree Seminole after a June 2026 domestic violence call by Wind River police that involved severe injuries to a 10-year-old.

Patel's post also says Wyoming's crime is "DOWN 8 points in ONE YEAR." The FBI's own crime data points the same way:

Wyoming police reported 1,022 violent offenses in 2025, down 9% from 1,123 in 2024, according to the FBI's Crime Data Explorer. Measured per 100,000 residents, the rate fell 12%, from 212.5 to 187.8. That's a bit faster than the nation's 9% drop, and Wyoming's rate is now about 43% below the national rate of 329.6.

Police are also solving more. Wyoming cleared 56.5% of violent crimes in 2025, up from 51.8% in 2024 and 48.4% in 2023. Nationally the figure was 47.2%.

Bigger than one operation

Operation Not Forgotten now sits inside a broader FBI effort called Operation Steadfast Promise, launched this year. Since April, the department says, it has opened more than 1,200 new investigations in Indian Country, charged 678 people, made more than 700 arrests, recovered 2,260 weapons and made 140 drug seizures.

"State and local partnerships are critical to this fight," Patel wrote. "From big cities to small towns to Indian Country, we're working together as one team."

Anyone with information on an unsolved violent crime in Indian Country can call a local FBI field office or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov.