CJNG leader 'El Jardinero' captured in Mexico two months after El Mencho's death

Mexican Navy special forces arrested Audias Flores Silva, a top leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in the western state of Nayarit on Tuesday, two months after the cartel's longtime boss was killed in a military operation, ABC7 Los Angeles reported.

The arrest represents the latest blow to one of Mexico's most powerful drug trafficking organizations, which U.S. authorities have identified as a primary supplier of methamphetamine and fentanyl reaching Southern California markets, including Orange County.

Flores Silva, who operated under the alias "El Jardinero" — Spanish for "The Gardener" — was taken into custody during an operation by special forces from Mexico's Secretariat of the Navy, according to ABC7. Federal Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch announced the arrest Tuesday.

Before rising to control regional operations, Flores Silva served as security chief to Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho, who led CJNG for more than a decade. According to ABC7, he later commanded the cartel's activities across five states — Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, Michoacán and Guerrero — overseeing methamphetamine laboratories and a network of clandestine airstrips used to move drugs across the region.

El Mencho was killed Feb. 22 in Tapalpa, in southern Jalisco. His death triggered widespread violence across roughly 20 states, leaving more than 70 people dead, including 25 Mexican National Guard members, ABC7 reported.

The U.S. State Department had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Flores Silva's capture, underscoring his significance within the cartel's hierarchy. He was previously arrested in 2016 in connection with an alleged 2015 police ambush in Soyatlán, Jalisco, according to the report.

Originally from Huetamo, Michoacán, Flores Silva had ascended to one of the cartel's most senior positions in the power vacuum that followed El Mencho's death.

CJNG remains one of Mexico's most powerful criminal organizations and a persistent concern for U.S. drug enforcement agencies, which have long identified the cartel as a top source of fentanyl and methamphetamine entering American markets through the Southwest border.