The Mexican army captured Audias Flores Silva, alias ‘El Jardinero’, on Monday – one of many prime leaders of the Jalisco New Era Cartel (CJNG).
Flores Silva was thought of to be one of many key candidates to succeed alias ‘El Mencho’, the previous chief of the CJNG who was killed by authorities in February.
The drug lord’s arrest comes amid a wider crackdown by Mexican safety forces towards organized crime, pushed partly by stress from Washington.
According to authorities, Monday’s operation didn’t contain any taking pictures, accidents, or collateral harm. The army deployment included 120 direct motion troops, 4 shut air assist helicopters, 4 fixed-wing plane, and two troop transport helicopters, with 400 naval personnel offering assist.
The CJNG chief’s greater than 60-strong escort group dispersed in numerous instructions upon the arrival of safety forces, trying a tactical distraction maneuver, however the goal was positioned by way of air and floor monitoring.
Official footage of the operation shared by Omar García Harfuch, Secretary of Safety and Citizen Safety of Mexico, reveals the second of the seize, with Flores Silva extracted from a roadside drainage conduit, the place he was hiding. The arrest occurred close to El Mirador, a rural neighborhood within the western state of Nayarit.
Hours after the information grew to become public, a number of shops and autos had been set on fire throughout Nayarit. Whereas the unrest fell wanting the extent of retaliation following the killing of ‘El Mencho’ in February 2026, the Authorities of Nayarit urged residents to remain of their properties as a preventative measure.
A significant blow to CJNG
The arrest was praised by the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, who congratulated Mexico’s Safety Cupboard and Secretary of the Navy.
In 2021, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Company offered a US$5 million reward for data resulting in Audias Flores Silva’s arrest or conviction. Flores Silva was outlined as “intently aligned” with former CJNG chief ‘El Mencho’, whose actual title is Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes.
In June 2025, the U.S. Division of the Treasury’s Workplace of Overseas Belongings Management (OFAC) sanctioned Flores Silva, figuring out him as a CJNG regional commander answerable for vital parts of territory within the states of Zacatecas, Guerrero, Nayarit, Jalisco, and Michoacán.
In response to U.S. authorities, Flores Silva was in command of clandestine laboratories producing methamphetamine and different illicit medicine in central Jalisco and southern Zacatecas. As well as, Silva managed the logistics of cocaine trafficking operations from Central America by way of Mexico to the US, together with the supervision of a number of clandestine airstrips.
‘El Jardinero’ was additionally believed to have coordinated a lethal 2015 attack towards Mexican police forces in Jalisco that left 15 brokers useless.
Flores Silva’s arrest is a tough hit to CJNG, as safety analysts considered him a possible successor to the group’s command after the dying of ‘El Mencho’ final February.
“Flores Silva was the closest factor the CJNG needed to a chief working officer, the person who as soon as ran Mencho’s private safety, managed the Pacific hall’s labs and airstrips, oversaw a timeshare fraud community and U.S. money-laundering pipeline, and brokered the alliance with Los Chapitos after the Sinaloa civil conflict,” Chris Dalby, director of World of Crime and senior analyst at Dyami Safety Intelligence, informed Latin America Experiences.
Authorities dealt a second blow to CJNG yesterday when the Particular Forces of the Mexican Military and the Nationwide Guard detained César Alejandro N, alias “El Güero Conta”. He was recognized as the primary monetary operator for ‘El Jardinero’ and accused of laundering cash by way of corporations and frontmen.
“Dropping Silva alongside his financier on the identical day hits the CJNG operationally and financially concurrently. It doesn’t spell an finish to the CJNG, nonetheless, and may very well assist Juan Carlos Gonzalez Valencia safe management by eradicating a rival,” stated Dalby.
Featured picture description: Needed poster for Audias Flores Silva, alias ‘El Jardinero’.
Featured picture credit score: Omar García Harfuch by way of Fb.
