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Mexican federal forces have arrested Audias Flores Silva, one of the alleged commanders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). He was seen as a potential successor to CJNG leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, who died in February after a military operation to arrest him.
At the time of his arrest, Flores Silva, also known as El Jardinero (“The Gardener”), had a warrant for his arrest in Mexico and was wanted by the United States for drug-related crimes.
CNN has contacted Mexico’s attorney general’s office to find out more details about the current charges against him and whether he has legal representation.
The arrest, which occurred in tandem with the detention of another suspected CJNG operative known as El Güero Conta, comes at a sensitive time for Mexico. The country faces questions over security ahead of the World Cup and pressure from the United States to take tougher action against cartels.
Mexican security forces surrounded the hut in the Nayarit community of El Mirador, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the tourist city of Puerto Vallarta in neighboring Jalisco state, and Flores Silva was protected by a security force of about 30 trucks and more than 60 armed men, the Mexican Navy said.
Candidate to succeed El Mencho arrested
Audias Flores Silva, aka “El Jardinero,” the supreme commander of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and a potential successor to “El Mencho,” has been arrested by Mexican Navy SEALs, officials announced.
Flores Silva’s bodyguards were disbanded as a diversion, but he was discovered trying to hide in a drainpipe.
“The operation was performed surgically without a single shot being fired, and there were no fatalities, no injuries, and no collateral damage,” the Navy said in a statement.
A video shared on social media by Mexico’s Security Secretary Omar García Halfuchi shows aerial footage of the arrest, with helicopters flying over the area during the deployment.
The Mexican Navy said the operation was the result of 19 months of surveillance and involved more than 500 personnel, six helicopters and intelligence reconnaissance aircraft.
Mexico’s Navy Secretary Reymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles said the operation began in October 2024, stating: “The Mexican Navy launched an intelligence operation focused on a priority target (Flores Silva) related to one of the country’s main criminal organizations (CJNG). From that moment, a careful and continuous systematic follow-up was carried out, based on field intelligence, intelligence gathering and international cooperation.”
After more than a year and a half of analysis and preparatory work, Mexican authorities tracked El Jardinero’s complete whereabouts, movement patterns, and with whom he interacted.
“Thanks to this analysis, the precise identification of the target was achieved on April 25, 2026,” Morales Ángeles said. Two days later, federal forces arrested Flores Silva, and he was handed over to the Attorney General the same day.
Audias Flores Silva, also known as Gabriel Raigoza Plasencia, had numerous aliases, and in addition to El Jardinero, he was also known as “The Commander,” “Bravo 2,” “Audi,” and “The Bosskiller.”
According to the U.S. State Department, he was born on November 19, 1980 in the Mexican state of Michoacan and was once a close aide to El Mencho, the longtime CJNG leader and one of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers.
Security analysts see El Jardinero as a possible successor to the CJNG leadership after El Mencho died following a military operation in Tapalpa, a town about 120 kilometers southwest of Guadalajara in Jalisco state. His death sparked a wave of violence in 20 states across the country.
Mexico’s Navy Secretary Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles on Tuesday described Flores Silva as “CJNG’s second-in-command…one of[El Mencho’s]most reliable people.”
Morales Ángeles said that after El Mencho’s death, El Jardinero “mobilized personnel, weapons and resources with the aim of seizing power in the criminal organization.”
Since then, the CJNG, one of the most violent criminal organizations in the country, has undergone restructuring to find new leadership. According to the website InSight Crime, potential successors to El Mencho within the cartel include Juan Carlos Valencia González (also known as El-03) and Ricardo Luis Velasco (also known as Doble R).
“There are three or four people who were El Mencho’s second-in-command or second-in-command, and this guy (Flores Silva) was one of them. So it’s not that he was second in command to the other commanders, but one of the other commanders in charge of the Jalisco cartel,” García Halfuchi added.
“For more than 20 years, he is a highly connected criminal operator who has consolidated regional structures with the ability to coordinate the production and trafficking of drugs, oversee clandestine methamphetamine laboratories, operate aircraft and airstrips, and control the logistics routes for moving drugs abroad,” García Halfucci explained.
He said the network could bring large quantities of drugs into the United States each year. He said resources were obtained through a variety of illegal activities, including drug trafficking, illegal sale of hydrocarbons, kidnapping, murder, arms trafficking, property confiscation, and extortion.
That extortion network alone spanned western and central Mexico, directly impacting both individuals and businesses involved in transportation, fuel, and commercial cargo.
“The investigation revealed a structured criminal extortion scheme in which members of this organization required transportation companies to proactively report all vehicles entering or traveling on specific routes and to provide data regarding the vehicle, driver, load, and final destination. Regular payments were imposed under duress. The scheme aimed at gaining territorial control and providing supposed protection in exchange for illicit channels, creating a regional extortion network that negatively affected economic activity,” García Harfucci explained.
An investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security revealed that Flores-Silva controlled “multiple methamphetamine laboratories in central Jalisco and southern Zacatecas,” the State Department wrote in 2021.
“In controlling the importation of illegal drugs into the United States, Flores Silva oversees the operation of several planes and a secret airstrip for illegal use. In addition, Flores Silva controls tractor-trailer trucks that transport cocaine from Central America to Mexico, and passenger vehicles that transport a variety of illegal narcotics from Mexico to CJNG’s U.S. distribution hubs in California, Texas, Illinois, Georgia, Washington, and Virginia,” the State Department said.
Also in 2021, the U.S. Treasury Department identified him as a “significant foreign drug trafficker,” noting that he was one of the regional leaders of the CJNG, which controlled multiple areas on Mexico’s Pacific coast, including Nayarit, where he was arrested on Monday.
DEA Administrator Terrence C. Cole said Tuesday that the Mexican Navy’s capture of Flores Silva is “a step toward a fentanyl-free America.”
“He was expected to replace Mr. El Mencho as CJNG leader, but law enforcement had other plans. An outcome like this will make our country safer,” he said.
In 2020, Flores-Silva was formally charged in federal court in the District of Columbia with drug distribution conspiracy and firearms-related crimes.
For these crimes, the State Department was offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
Flores Silva previously served a five-year prison sentence in the United States for drug trafficking, according to the Treasury Department.
“After his release, he returned to Mexico. Mexican authorities arrested Flores Silva in 2016 on suspicion of orchestrating an ambush against Mexican police officers in Soyatlan, Jalisco in April 2015. Flores Silva was later released from a Mexican prison after contesting the charges in Mexican courts,” the Treasury Department explained.
