Mexico’s Jalisco drug cartel commander ‘El Jardinero’ found hiding in ditch

xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoToggle PlayMexican military captures cartel commander Audias Flores

Mexican special forces have arrested Audias Flores, known as “El Jardinero”, one of the top commanders of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), as well as his chief financial operator, Mexico’s Security of Security ⁠Omar Garcia Harfuch said.

Videos shared by ‌Garcia Harfuch on social media on Monday showed aerial footage of the arrest of Flores as helicopters hovered overhead during the arrest operation, which the Mexican Navy said followed months of surveillance and involved more than 500 troops, six helicopters and several planes.

“Audias Flores Silva, alias ‘El Jardinero’, was detained in Nayarit. He has an arrest warrant in Mexico and is also sought by United States authorities for extradition purposes. For his capture, the US government offered a reward of 5 million dollars,” Garcia Harfuch said in a post on social media.

Flores, a regional commander in control of swaths of CJNG territory along Mexico’s Pacific coast, was considered a potential successor to Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho”, who ran the feared cartel and was killed by security forces in February.

Later on Monday evening, the security secretary said that Flores’s financial operator, Cesar Alejandro “N”, alias “El Guero Conta”, was arrested in a joint security operation in the central Mexican city of Zapopan.

“‘El Guero Conta’ is accused of laundering funds from illicit activities through companies and frontmen, as well as acquiring aircraft, vessels, houses, ranches, and investing in tequila production companies,” the minister said.

Mexico’s Navy said in a statement that special forces surrounded a cabin in El Mirador, some 20km (12 miles) north of the popular resort city of Puerto Vallarta, where Flores was being protected by a perimeter of some 30 pick-up trucks and more than 60 gunmen.

Flores’s escorts scattered as a diversion, but the Jalisco cartel leader was located as he tried to hide in a drainage ditch, the Navy said.

“The operation was carried out with surgical precision without a single shot being fired,” the navy said.

Carlos Olivo, a former US Drug Enforcement Administration agent and a CJNG expert, said ⁠Flores was key to operations within the Jalisco cartel, controlling networks of drug laboratories, smuggling routes, and distribution networks within the US.

During her morning news briefing on Monday, Sheinbaum said her government had warned Washington, in a diplomatic note, that the presence of unauthorised US officials at an anti-narcotics operation in Chihuahua must not be repeated.

“Let us hope this is an exceptional case … and that a situation like this never happens again,” she said.

Sheinbaum said Mexico and the US had been working under an understanding based on coordination and respect for each country’s sovereignty, and she hoped the unauthorised presence of the two CIA agents remained an isolated case.

The Mexican leader also said that the details of the operation in Chihuahua, during which two Mexican officials also died in the car crash along with the CIA agents on April 19, must be clarified, and she urged the Attorney General’s Office and the relevant authorities to take action on the case.

According to reports, the crash occurred following an operation to dismantle six drug laboratories in the mountainous Chihuahua, which is a border state with the US, governed by the conservative National Action Party (PAN), the largest party in opposition to Sheinbaum’s left-leaning Morena.

Chihuahua Governor Maria Eugenia Campos, a prominent opposition figure, has been called to testify in Mexico City on Tuesday alongside State Attorney Cesar Jauregui regarding the circumstances of the CIA agents’ presence in the country.

Mexico’s Ministry of Security said on Saturday that one of the CIA agents had entered Mexico as a visitor, while the other had done so using a diplomatic passport. It further reiterated that it was unaware that foreign agents were operating within its territory.

The CIA has declined to comment on the deaths.