Wanted Level, Militia Raids & Arrests (Version from Sep 21, 2026, 05:56 AM)

Crime on Isla Sombra raises your wanted level, the game's name for a pool of "raid points". The level has three named states (person of interest, suspect and wanted). Higher states change how police and militia treat you and make a militia raid on one of your hideouts more likely. If a fight against police goes badly you are arrested; if a raid or a militia fight goes badly you end up in the work camp.

Contents: The three states · What raises it · Militia raids · Police stops and thug robberies · Arrest and the work camp · How sure is this page? · Not found in the game files

The three states

Editors report how the states behave:

• Committing crimes first gives person of interest; more crime raises you to suspect and then wanted.
• Each state runs on its own timer. When one wears off you drop to the next lower state, which starts with its full timer.
• Sleeping in a bed applies a well-being bonus that takes a chunk off the cool-down (see Stamina, Health & Rest).
• In the game files the player controller stores one raid pool value and one wanted timeout, and the game can lock the raid timeouts. The player character reacts to police chases, police aggro, attacks on police and being caught in a raid.

What raises it

Different crimes add different amounts of raid points. Making sales adds a little; killing someone adds a lot.

The Wanted points multiplier cartel setting scales these gains (Economic 0.6, Gangsta 1.2, Chillout 0.2). See Cartel Settings & Difficulty Presets.

Militia raids

A raid becomes possible each time the raid pool fills (500 points), and raids only unlock from cartel level 6. A full pool is the trigger point rather than a guarantee: the cartel settings also carry a raid chance multiplier (0.5 on Economic, 1.3 on Gangsta), and how the chance is rolled is handled in script. Enemies start to spawn from cartel level 4. See Cartel Progression.

• A raid is announced by the sound of an approaching helicopter, after which militia jump out to catch you.
• If you hear it coming you can try to carry drugs out of the hideout, but the longer you wait the harder the escape.
• When the raid ends, the drugs in the hideout are taken; if you are caught you end up in the work camp.
• While a raid is running the stress bar climbs fast (6 per second, the highest of all stress events).
• Hideout Security increases the response time when a raid comes, and hideout Visibility affects how noticeable your actions are to the community and authorities. See Hideouts & Properties and Hideout Equipment.
• Raids can be switched off in the cartel settings (Chillout does). The game warns that this changes access to the prison camp.

Police stops and thug robberies

Police and militia can stop you and check you for illegal substances. The stop is a short dialogue, and the options include:

• producing your papers, or a joke reply about your mother eating them;
• talking your way out ("just minding my business") with a percentage chance shown, or admitting to selling drugs;
• bribing the officer: B25,000 with a percentage chance shown;
• using a special item, when you have one that fits;
• fighting, which starts combat. Losing to police means arrest; militia officers call you scum and fight on the same terms.

The game reports three outcomes of a search: the police found nothing on you, the police took your bribe, or the police took your drugs. The tables do not list which option leads to which outcome.

Thugs behave differently: they demand your money, and being robbed costs 40 street cred. Thug-run road blockades appear around the map and are not always guarded; they are easier to pass with more street cred. Street cred is scaled by a cartel setting and is lost when you are robbed.

Secret slots only lower the chance of being found: the game says a secret slot "significantly reduces the chance" that items are found in a robbery or search, and items in a backpack's secret slots will be found. Editors report that hidden-slot items survived a police stop search. Your character starts with 1 secret slot and some clothing adds more (see Clothing & Apparel and Inventory & Special Slots).

Arrest and the work camp

• If police defeat you in a fight you are arrested: the drugs you carry and your weapons are taken.
• Editors report that contraband is lost even from hidden slots when you land in jail (secret slots only lower the chance of being found in a stop search). Whether cash is also taken is unconfirmed.
• The Loss multiplier setting text mentions an "arrest fine" and a "prison bailout", and the prison controller keeps a sentence-card count and a bailout amount for each imprisoned player. The amounts are worked out in script and are not in the tables; editors have not seen a fine on arrest.
• A militia raid that catches you, or losing a fight to militia, sends you to the work camp. There you do chores such as washing clothes or baking bread to earn labor cards, which help you get out. The camp has its own prison clothing (cap, top, pants, slippers).
• The camp has customers of its own: if you smuggle drugs in you can serve them.
• There is a prison-break timer of 1,800 seconds (30 min) to return to prison.

How sure is this page?

Not found in the game files

Source: game DataTables (BalanceFlagsDatabase, StressEventDatabase, CartelConfigPresetDatabase, strTable_Oponents, strTable_GameHints, ItemDatabase). Values are as stored in the current Steam build; bolivars are written with a leading B.