R1’s Arrest Exposes the CJNG’s Network of ‘R’ Commanders

After the murder of a mayor, Carlos Manzo, and influencer Valeria Márquez, Mexican authorities say they have their suspect in custody: Ramón Álvarez Ayala, alias “R1,” the alleged leader of the R’s, part of Mexico’s CJNG.

R1 was arrested in July and has since been charged in the November 2025-murder of Manzo, then the mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, in retaliation for Manzo’s public campaigns against organized crime. Mexican security forces also accuse R1’s son, Francisco Álvarez, of requesting his father kill Márquez, a 23-year-old influencer who was shot to death live on-camera in Zapopan, Jalisco in May 2025 as she filmed a TikTok video.

R1 allegedly ran a violent cell of the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG) called Los Rs, with yet another “R” –  Rafael Álvarez Ayala, alias “R2,”. Since R1’s arrest, Mexican officials say R2 has taken over the Los Rs cell, which is active in Michoacán and Jalisco. 

SEE ALSO: Juan Carlos Valencia González, alias ‘El 03’

R1’s arrest connects a pair of high-profile assassinations directly to the senior leadership of the CJNG and sheds light on a broader network of commanders sharing the “R” alias, who direct significant armed enforcement of the CJNG and its territorial dominance, according to the Mexican and United States governments. These figures have drawn the crosshairs of both countries as they attempt to curb the CJNG’s new leadership following the death of former kingpin Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho.” 

Apart from R1’s murder charges in Mexico, an August 2026 indictment from the US Department of Justice named both R1 and R2 as regional CJNG commanders overseeing cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking. 

But R1 is not the only R-aliased CJNG figure the United States is hunting. Looming at the very top, outside of Los Rs, is Juan Carlos Valencia González, alias “R3” or “El 03”, who the United States officially named as the CJNG’s new supreme leader. He is the biological son of Rosalinda González Valencia and the stepson of El Mencho. 

R3 allegedly heads a heavily armed and violent paramilitary wing called Grupo Elite across Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato, and Zacatecas, which was formed around the late 2010s by El Mencho’s brother, Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “Tony Montana” following expansion tensions with other groups. Now, the wing might run on a shared model, with R3 handling strategic coordination while another R-aliased CJNG figure oversees operations on the ground, reporting from Milenio in Mexico suggests.

SEE ALSO: US Names El Mencho’s Successor—CJNG May Have Other Plans

Ricardo Ruiz Velasco, “El Doble R” is R3’s alleged partner in commanding Grupo Elite—and also connected to Márquez‘s murder by US authorities as the man who actually pulled the trigger. His notoriety extends into Mexican narcocorrido culture: the band Los Alegres del Barranco’s song called “El Doble R,” dedicated to him and referencing Grupo Élite directly, has nearly 200 million hits on Spotify. It became its own flashpoint in May 2025 when the band had crowds sing the lyrics themselves to dodge Jalisco’s performance ban on narcocorridos. The United States has also put a $5 million bounty on Ruiz Velasco’s capture

Both Washington and Mexico are converging on charges against the same handful of “R”s, most of whom remain at large.