The US Department of Justice announced the arrest and Friday court appearance of Anibal Alexander Canelon Aguirre, 50 — also known as "Prometheus" and "The Engineer" — the alleged developer of Ploutus ATM malware and the first cybercriminal placed on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list (March 2026). Court documents allege he and accomplices used Ploutus to empty ATMs in jackpotting attacks between February 2024 and December 2025, stealing more than $5.4 million in at least 63 bank jackpottings and 54 credit-union incidents, with losses surpassing $100,000 per incident; the ring laundered the funds to accounts tied to the Tren de Aragua (TdA) Venezuelan gang. Aguirre faces charges including conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering, and providing material support to terrorists, and the US has charged 98 suspects in TdA-linked ATM jackpotting since October 2025. Why it matters: this closes an enforcement loop on a long-running, financially devastating ATM-malware campaign and demonstrates the hard-security consequences — FBI most-wanted status and tainted-fund tracing — that now anchor financial-crime takedowns.

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