Federal authorities captured Audias Flores Silva, alias ‘El Jardinero’, one of several contenders to succeed Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, ‘El Mencho’, leader of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) killed on February 22, 2026, in Tapalpa, Jalisco. The April 27 arrest in El Mirador, Santa María del Oro, Nayarit, followed 19 months of tracking and involved no shots. Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch confirmed ‘El Jardinero’ was among three or four leaders vying for CJNG control; the U.S. had offered a $5 million reward.
Special forces from the Navy Secretariat (Semar), with support from the Attorney General's Office (FGR) and Security Secretariat (SSPC), executed a precise operation against ‘El Jardinero’, 46 (born 1980), who was hiding in a drainage pipe despite an escort of 60 people and 30 vehicles. The raid mobilized 120 personnel and unmanned aircraft in Nayarit.
‘El Jardinero’, also known as ‘Commandante’, ‘El Bravo 2’, ‘Audi’, ‘El Mata Jefes’, or Gabriel Raigosa Plascencia, oversaw CJNG operations in Nayarit, Jalisco, Michoacán, Guerrero, and Zacatecas. He managed annual smuggling of 67 tons of drugs to the U.S. (5 tons cocaine, 9 heroin, 43 marijuana, 10 methamphetamines), plus extortions on truckers, fuel theft, kidnappings, murders, money laundering, and the cartel’s propaganda/communications.
Post-‘El Mencho’ death, he mobilized personnel and weapons to seize control, prompting General Ricardo Trevilla’s anti-blockade operations to curb violence. U.S. authorities sanctioned him in 2021, accused him of distributing at least 5 kg cocaine and 1 kg heroin, and sought extradition. He had served five years in U.S. prison for trafficking and was briefly held in Mexico in 2016 for a police ambush in Soyatlán, Jalisco, before release.
Other successors include Julio Alberto Castillo Rodríguez (‘El Mencho’ son-in-law), Juan Carlos González Valencia (‘El 03’, stepson), Gonzalo Mendoza Gaytán (‘El Sapo’), and Carlos Andrés Rivera Varela (‘La Firma’). Separately, César Alejandro ‘N’, ‘El Güero Conta’, ‘El Jardinero’’s financial operator, was detained in Zapopan, Jalisco. U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson hailed the arrest on X as ‘an important step against those profiting from fentanyl.’
Mexico holds an arrest warrant; Flores Silva faces U.S. extradition.
