Child Sex Offender from Cuba Named Featured Fugitive for November

AUSTIN – Texas 10 Most Wanted Criminal Illegal Immigrant Ismael Arias – a convicted child sex offender from Cuba – is this month’s Featured Fugitive. The reward for information leading to his arrest is increased to $4,000 during November if the tip is received this month.

Ismael Arias, 52, from Cuba, has been wanted out of Harris Co. since April 2025, for failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements.

Arias has a violent criminal history dating back to 2005 when he was arrested in Florida for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, battery and criminal mischief. In 2006, Arias was arrested in Hudspeth Co., Texas for aggravated sexual assault of a child and aggravated kidnapping. He was arrested again that year in Culberson Co., Texas for sexual assault and kidnapping. Arias was later convicted in Hudspeth Co. for indecency with a child by contact following an incident with a 13-year-old girl. Arias served time in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prison and was released on parole in July 2013. He was discharged from TDCJ in July 2015.

Arias is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs about 225 pounds. He has tattoos on both of his upper arms. More information about Arias or updates in the event of his arrest can be found here.

Funded by the Governor’s Public Safety Office, Texas Crime Stoppers offers cash rewards to any person who provides information that leads to the arrest of one of Texas’ 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, Sex Offenders or Criminal Illegal Immigrants. So far in 2025, DPS and other agencies have arrested 60 Texas 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, Sex Offenders, and Criminal Illegal Immigrants, including 24 sex offenders and 13 criminal illegal immigrants – with $41,000 in rewards being paid for tips that yielded arrests.

To be eligible for cash rewards, tipsters MUST provide information to authorities using one of the following three methods:

• Call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-252-TIPS (8477).
• Submit a web tip through the DPS website by selecting the fugitive you have information about then clicking on the link under their picture.
• Submit a Facebook tip by clicking the “SUBMIT A TIP” link (under the “About” section).

All tips are anonymous — regardless of how they are submitted — and tipsters will be provided a tip number instead of using a name.

DPS investigators work with local law enforcement agencies to select fugitives for the Texas 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, Sex Offenders and Criminal Illegal Immigrants Lists. You can find the current lists — with photos — on the DPS website.

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