Arrests by agents from the FBI surged nearly 200 percent in 2025, statistics the bureau provided exclusively to Breitbart News show.
FBI director Kash Patel told Breitbart News that the remarkable increase in FBI arrests from former President Joe Biden’s last year in office to President Donald Trump’s first year back in office is directly attributable to Trump’s tough-on-crime policies versus weakness from Democrats like Biden.
“These are the kind of numbers that truly show what law enforcement can do when leadership gives them support,” Patel said in a statement provided exclusively to Breitbart News along with the statistics.
“In just one year under President Trump, this FBI has built historic partnerships all across the country and delivered nearly 200% more arrests at the federal level – taking down violent gangs, drug trafficking organizations, organized crime networks, and more. That’s an astounding increase that can only be possible with a President who lets good cops be cops and an administration working every single day to make America safer.”
The FBI made 67,000 arrests in 2025—specifically from Jan. 20, 2025 to Jan. 20, 2026—versus just 22,500 in 2024, or Jan. 20, 2024, to Jan. 20, 2025. That represents an increase of 197 percent.
The bureau also provided a chart to Breitbart News showing the astounding difference between the last year of Biden and first year back of Trump:
In addition to these top-line arrest numbers, the FBI also told Breitbart News that this has coincided with a shocking 20 percent drop in the murder rate nationally—and that in Trump’s first year back the FBI has already caught five of the top 10 Most Wanted fugitives. Four of those were caught in 2025, and a fifth in early 2026. Trump’s FBI in one year has already caught more FBI Top Ten Most Wanted fugitives than Biden’s FBI did in his entire term. Biden’s FBI only caught four Top Ten Most Wanted fugitives during Biden’s entire term in office.
The FBI also says that this past year it has disrupted at least 1,800 gangs and criminal enterprises, a 210 percent increase over Biden’s last year, and that it has seized more than 2,000 kilos of fentanyl. That’s enough fentanyl to kill 130 million Americans, and it represents an increase of 31 percent in terms of the volume of seizure versus Biden’s last year in office.
Also, the FBI says that Nihilistic Violent Extremism arrests are up 490 percent and espionage arrests are also up a total of 35 percent.
The Bureau adds that more than 6,000 child victims have been located in the past year, an increase of 22 percent over Biden’s last year in office.
Much of the increased activity, the FBI says, was a result of what it describes as successful surges of resources like the efforts surrounding operation Summer Heat which saw more than 9,000 arrests last summer.
