El Jardinero: What to know about ‘The Gardener,’ the Mexican cartel figure arrested in a ditch

(CNN) — Mexican federal forces have arrested one of the alleged commanders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Audias Flores Silva, who was considered a possible successor to Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, the CJNG leader who died after a military operation to capture him in February.

At the time of his capture, Flores Silva – aka El Jardinero (“The Gardener”) – had an arrest warrant against him in Mexico and was wanted by the United States for drug-related crimes.

CNN has contacted the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico to find out the details of the current charge against him and whether he has legal representation.

The arrest – which took place alongside the detention of another suspected CJNG operative, known as El Güero Conta – comes at a sensitive moment for Mexico. The country is facing questions about security ahead of the World Cup and US pressure to take tougher action against cartels.

A ‘surgical’ operation to stop El Jardinero

Mexican security forces surrounded a cabin in the Nayarit community of El Mirador – about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the tourist city of Puerto Vallarta, in the neighboring state of Jalisco – where Flores Silva was being protected by a security detail made up of around 30 trucks and more than 60 armed men, according to the Mexican Navy.

Flores Silva’s bodyguards dispersed as a diversionary tactic, but he was found while trying to hide in a drainage pipe.

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

Videos shared on social media by Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch show aerial shots of the arrest, with helicopters flying over the area during the deployment.

The Mexican Navy indicated that the operation was the result of 19 months of surveillance and involved more than 500 personnel, six helicopters, and intelligence and reconnaissance aircraft.

Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles, Mexico’s Secretary of the Navy, said the operation began in October 2024, “when the Mexican Navy activated intelligence efforts focused on a priority target (Flores Silva) linked to one of the country’s main criminal organizations (the CJNG). From that moment on, a discreet and sustained 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 preparation work, Mexican authorities tracked down El Jardinero’s full location, his 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 stated. Two days later, federal forces arrested Flores Silva, who was turned over to the Attorney General’s Office that same day.

Who is Flores Silva?

Audias Flores Silva, also known as Gabriel Raigosa Plascencia, had numerous aliases and in addition to El Jardinero was also known as “Commander,” “Bravo 2,” “Audi” and “Boss Killer.”

Born on November 19, 1980, in Michoacán, Mexico, he was once a close collaborator of El Mencho, who for years was the top leader of the CJNG and one of the most wanted drug traffickers in the world, according to the US State Department.

Security analysts saw El Jardinero as a possible successor to the CJNG leadership after El Mencho died following the military operation in Tapalpa, a town located about 120 kilometers southwest of Guadalajara, Jalisco. His death unleashed a wave of violence in 20 states of the country.

Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles, Mexico’s Secretary of the Navy, described Flores Silva on Tuesday as “the second in command of the CJNG … one of the most trusted men (of El Mencho).”

After El Mencho’s death, El Jardinero mobilized “personnel, weapons and resources with the aim of taking over the power of the criminal organization,” Morales Ángeles said.

Since then, the CJNG, one of the country’s most violent criminal organizations, has been undergoing a reshuffle to find a new leader. According to the website InSight Crime, other possible successors to El Mencho within the cartel’s structure include Juan Carlos Valencia González (alias “El 03”), and Ricardo Ruiz Velasco (alias “Doble R”).

García Harfuch added that there are “three or four people who are or were second in command to El Mencho, and this one (Flores Silva) was one of them. So, it’s not that he was second in command over the others, he is one of the other commanders who are in charge of the Jalisco cartel.”

“He is a highly relevant criminal operator who, for more than two decades, consolidated a regional structure with the capacity to coordinate the production and trafficking of drugs; supervise clandestine methamphetamine laboratories, operate aircraft and airstrips, as well as control logistical routes for the movement of narcotics abroad,” García Harfuch explained.

He said the network could bring large quantities of drugs into the US annually. It obtained resources through various illicit activities including drug dealing, illegal marketing of hydrocarbons, kidnapping, homicide, arms trafficking, property dispossession and extortion, according to the secretary.

Its extortion network alone extended from western to central Mexico, directly affecting both individuals and companies involved in transportation, fuel and commercial cargo.

“The investigations have identified a structured criminal extortion scheme whereby members of this organization demanded that transport companies report in advance every vehicle entering or traveling along certain routes, providing data on the vehicle, driver, cargo capacity, and final destination. This was followed by the imposition of periodic payments under threat. This scheme aimed to gain territorial control and offer supposed protection in exchange for illegal routes, establishing a regional extortion network that negatively impacted economic activity,” explained García Harfuch.

What does the US say about him?

Probes by the US Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security Investigations showed that Flores Silva controlled “several methamphetamine labs in central Jalisco and southern Zacatecas,” the State Department wrote in 2021.

“In controlling the movement of illegal drugs for importation to the United States, Flores-Silva oversees the operation of several airplanes and clandestine airstrips for illicit use. In addition, Flores-Silva controls tractor-trailer trucks for transporting cocaine from Central America to Mexico, as well as passenger vehicles to transport various illicit narcotics from Mexico to CJNG’s US distribution cells in California, Texas, Illinois, Georgia, Washington, and Virginia,” the State Department said.

Also in 2021, the US Treasury Department identified him as “a significant foreign narcotics trafficker” and pointed to him as one of the regional leaders of the CJNG who had control in several areas of the Mexican Pacific coast, including Nayarit, where he was arrested on Monday.

On Tuesday, DEA Administrator Terrance C. Cole said that the capture of Flores Silva by the Mexican Navy was “a step toward a fentanyl-free America.”

“He was expected to succeed El Mencho as leader of CJNG, but Law Enforcement had other plans. Results like this make our nations safer,” he said.

In 2020, Flores Silva was formally charged by a federal court in the District of Columbia for conspiracy to distribute drugs and for crimes related to the use of firearms.

For these crimes, the State Department was offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

According to the Treasury Department, Flores Silva previously served a five-year prison sentence in the United States for drug trafficking.

“After his release, he returned to Mexico. In 2016, Mexican authorities arrested Flores Silva after being accused of orchestrating an April 2015 ambush against Mexican police officers in Soyatlan, Jalisco. Flores Silva was later released from Mexican prison after fighting his charges in Mexican courts,” the Treasury Department explained.

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CNN’s Michael Rios contributed to this report.