FBI Extraditions Jump 65% Under Kash Patel as Foreign Outreach Hits 100 Calls

Q: How did an expelled student successfully flee to Germany using a deceased victim's bank cards before authorities intervened?

He fled by allegedly taking Julissa Salazar’s phone and bank cards after investigators say he killed her, then using those cards to fund the first leg of his escape before law enforcement caught up with him in Germany. According to Tucson police and court records, Varun Batchigari, a 20-year-old former University of Arizona student, allegedly strangled Salazar in her Tucson apartment. Investigators say he then used her phone to send messages to her mother, apparently to delay alarm, and used one of Salazar’s bank cards to pay for transportation to Tucson International Airport. From Tucson, authorities say he flew to Houston and then boarded a flight to Berlin. Reports indicate he intended to continue on to India, his home country. The fact that he had access to Salazar’s cards and phone appears to have helped him move quickly before local authorities could stop him in Arizona. His escape ended in Germany because U.S. and foreign authorities were alerted in time. Tucson police said the FBI’s Tucson field office and the FBI legal attaché in Berlin coordinated with German authorities, who detained him on arrival. Even after that arrest, his return to Arizona still requires Germany’s formal extradition process, including judicial review under German law and treaty rules.

1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 3

157 extraditions and 86 foreign transfers of custody were completed in Patel’s first 18 months, with extraditions up 65% and transfers up 54% from the Biden administration’s final 18 months.
100 calls to foreign partners helped drive that increase, versus nine in Christopher Wray’s last 18 months and 20 across Wray’s 2022-2025 tenure, according to FBI data obtained by Fox News Digital.
Recent cases include Alexis Flores, extradited from Honduras after 25 years on the run, Zobaidul Amin from Malaysia on child-exploitation charges, and Texas resident Abdullah Anwar from Qatar on fraud charges.
The push relies on foreign arrests followed by Justice Department treaty requests and FBI agents taking custody abroad, a process Patel said has expanded through Trump administration ties and Attorney General Todd Blanche’s legal support.