Jalisco Cartel Leader ‘El Jardinero’ Detained in Mexico

Mexican special forces arrested Audias Flores, otherwise known as El Jardinero (The Gardener), who is alleged to be one of the leaders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said on April 27.

Flores, a regional commander, controlled CJNG territory along the Pacific coast of Mexico and was considered a potential successor to the cartel’s boss, Nemesio Oseguera (alias El Mencho), who was killed in February in an operation aided by the United States.

García Harfuch said Flores had been captured in the state of Nayarit in western Mexico.

The Mexican Ministry of the Navy, which led the operation, said in a statement that Flores was detained as a result of intelligence work, interagency coordination, and high-precision tactical operations, as well as “information-sharing with U.S. agencies.”

“After 19 months of monitoring this priority target, the operation was planned, developed, and carried out by personnel from the Ministry of the Navy, in coordination with the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) and the Attorney General’s Office (FGR),” the ministry said.

Security forces surrounded a cabin in El Mirador, some 12 miles north of the popular resort ​city of Puerto Vallarta, where he was being protected by a perimeter of some 30 pickup trucks and more than 60 gunmen, the ministry said.

Mexican armed forces sent 120 soldiers and 400 naval personnel in support roles, backed by four close-support helicopters, two troop-transport helicopters, and four fixed-wing aircraft, the ministry said.

Flores ‘Found in Drainage Culvert’

Flores was detained while attempting to hide in a drainage culvert, the ministry said.

“The operation was carried out surgically, without the need to fire a single shot, and with no deaths, injuries, or collateral damage,” the ministry said.

The ministry also posted aerial footage on X showing part of the operation and the cabin surrounded by helicopters.

In a post on X, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, praised the “courage and precision” of those involved in the operation.

“Actions like this strengthen security and help dismantle criminal networks that threaten our communities,” Johnson wrote. “Together, we deliver results that make our nations safe.”

Carlos Olivo, an expert on the CJNG and a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration assistant special agent in charge, said Flores was a “significant figure” and his arrest would “have a bigger effect on CJNG operations than El Mencho being taken out.”

García Harfuch later announced what he said was another significant arrest.

“Today in Zapopan, Jalisco, Special Forces of the Mexican Army and the National Guard … detained César Alejandro N, alias ‘El Güero Conta,’ identified as the financial operator for Audias Flores Silva, alias ‘El Jardinero,’ the regional leader of the CJNG,” he wrote in a post on X.

“This arrest represents an important blow to the financial structure of that criminal group. The institutions of the Security Cabinet continue to carry out ongoing actions to weaken criminal organizations and bring those who generate violence to justice.”

It is not clear whether Flores will face charges in Mexico or be extradited to the United States, where the U.S. State Department had offered a $5 million reward for his arrest.

Flores was indicted in North Carolina in 2002 for engaging in narcotics trafficking and was later convicted and jailed for five years, before being released and returning to Mexico, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in April 2021.

The Mexican authorities later arrested Flores in 2016 and accused him of organizing an ambush at Soyatlan in Jalisco state in April 2015, which killed 15 Mexican police officers in Soyatlan, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said at the time.

Flores’s lawyers fought the charges through the Mexican courts, and he was later released.

On Aug. 13, 2020, Flores was charged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on a federal indictment that included a conspiracy to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine and 1 kilogram or more of heroin for importation into the United States, as well as firearms charges.

The Mexican government has stepped up efforts to combat cartels after Trump threatened Mexico with tariffs, especially over the manufacturing and trafficking of fentanyl using Chinese chemicals.

In August 2025, Ilan Katz, a criminal defense attorney in Mexico who also represents banks and other financial institutions, told The Epoch Times that the cartels were being “squeezed” by the Mexican government and García Harfuch.

Reuters contributed to this report.