MONTERREY, Mexico: Mexican special forces have arrested Audias Flores, known as \u201cEl Jardinero,\u201d one of \u200bthe top commanders of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in the western state of Nayarit, security minister Omar Garcia Harfuch said on Monday.<\/p>\n
Flores \u2014 a regional commander in control of swathes of Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) territory along Mexico\u2019s Pacific coast \u2014 was considered a potential successor to Nemesio Oseguera, alias \u201cEl \u200cMencho,\u201d who \u200cran the cartel and was \u200bkilled in \u200ca \u2060security \u200boperation in \u2060February.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a significant figure,\u201d said Carlos Olivo, a former US Drug Enforcement Administration assistant special agent in charge and a CJNG expert. His arrest \u201cwill have a bigger effect on CJNG operations than Mencho being taken out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia Harfuch said on X that the \u2060arrest followed a Mexican arrest warrant and \u200ccharges in the United \u200cStates. \u201cHe\u2019s also wanted by US authorities \u200bfor extradition. The \u200cUS government had offered a $5 million reward for his \u200ccapture,\u201d Garcia Harfuch posted.<\/p>\n
The US Treasury Department had identified Flores as a \u201csignificant foreign narcotics trafficker\u201d and said in 2021 a US grand jury had charged him with conspiracy \u200cto distribute cocaine and heroin, among other crimes.<\/p>\n
The arrest marks the latest blow \u2060to Mexican \u2060drug cartels after El Mencho\u2019s killing \u2014 a personal mission for Garcia Harfuch, who had blamed El Mencho for a 2020 assassination attempt that left two of his bodyguards dead.<\/p>\n
Flores was among several top regional leaders who security analysts believed could be well placed to take over control of the cartel.<\/p>\n
Mexico\u2019s security situation is facing tight scrutiny as the country prepares to co-host the FIFA World Cup \u200bthis summer alongside the US \u200band Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MONTERREY, Mexico: Mexican special forces have arrested Audias Flores, known as \u201cEl Jardinero,\u201d one of \u200bthe top commanders of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in the western state of Nayarit, security minister Omar Garcia Harfuch said on Monday. Flores \u2014 a regional commander in control of swathes of Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) territory …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":96933,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96934,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96915\/revisions\/96934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}