The Mexican military captured Audias Flores Silva, alias ‘El Jardinero’, on Monday – one of the top leaders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

Flores Silva was considered to be one of the key candidates to succeed alias ‘El Mencho’, the former leader of the CJNG who was killed by authorities in February.

The drug lord’s arrest comes amid a wider crackdown by Mexican security forces against organized crime, driven partly by pressure from Washington.

According to authorities, Monday’s operation did not involve any shooting, injuries, or collateral damage. The military deployment included 120 direct action troops, four close air support helicopters, four fixed-wing aircraft, and two troop transport helicopters, with 400 naval personnel providing support.

The CJNG leader’s more than 60-strong escort group dispersed in different directions upon the arrival of security forces, attempting a tactical distraction maneuver, but the target was located through air and ground tracking.

Official footage of the operation shared by Omar García Harfuch, Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection of Mexico, shows the moment of the capture, with Flores Silva extracted from a roadside drainage conduit, where he was hiding. The arrest happened near El Mirador, a rural community in the western state of Nayarit.

Hours after the news became public, several stores and vehicles were set on fire across Nayarit. While the unrest fell short of the level of retaliation following the killing of ‘El Mencho’ in February 2026, the Government of Nayarit urged citizens to stay in their homes as a preventative measure.

A major blow to CJNG

The arrest was praised by the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, who congratulated Mexico’s Security Cabinet and Secretary of the Navy.

In 2021, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency offered a US$5 million reward for information leading to Audias Flores Silva’s arrest or conviction. Flores Silva was defined as “closely aligned” with former CJNG leader ‘El Mencho’, whose real name is Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes.

In June 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Flores Silva, identifying him as a CJNG regional commander in charge of significant portions of territory in the states of Zacatecas, Guerrero, Nayarit, Jalisco, and Michoacán. 

According to U.S. authorities, Flores Silva was in control of clandestine laboratories producing methamphetamine and other illicit drugs in central Jalisco and southern Zacatecas. In addition, Silva managed the logistics of cocaine trafficking operations from Central America through Mexico to the United States, including the supervision of several clandestine airstrips.

‘El Jardinero’ was also believed to have coordinated a deadly 2015 attack against Mexican police forces in Jalisco that left 15 agents dead.

Flores Silva’s arrest is a hard hit to CJNG, as security analysts considered him a potential successor to the group’s command after the death of ‘El Mencho’ last February.

“Flores Silva was the closest thing the CJNG had to a chief operating officer, the man who once ran Mencho’s personal security, managed the Pacific corridor’s labs and airstrips, oversaw a timeshare fraud network and U.S. money-laundering pipeline, and brokered the alliance with Los Chapitos after the Sinaloa civil war,” Chris Dalby, director of World of Crime and senior analyst at Dyami Security Intelligence, told Latin America Reports.

Authorities dealt a second blow to CJNG yesterday when the Special Forces of the Mexican Army and the National Guard detained César Alejandro N, alias “El Güero Conta”. He was identified as the main financial operator for ‘El Jardinero’ and accused of laundering money through companies and frontmen.

“Losing Silva alongside his financier on the same day hits the CJNG operationally and financially simultaneously. It doesn’t spell an end to the CJNG, however, and may actually help Juan Carlos Gonzalez Valencia secure leadership by removing a rival,” said Dalby.

Featured image description: Wanted poster for Audias Flores Silva, alias ‘El Jardinero’.

Featured image credit: Omar García Harfuch via Facebook.

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