Who Is ‘El Jardinero,’ the CJNG Power Broker Arrested in Mexico?

The capture in Mexico of an influential Jalisco Cartel New Generation leader known as El Jardinero marks a major inflection point for the country’s most formidable criminal network just two months after the group’s leader was killed.

Mexico’s armed forces arrested Audias Flores Silva, alias “El Jardinero,” in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit on April 27 without having to fire a single shot, according to Mexican security chief Omar García Harfuch.

SEE ALSO: What’s Next for Mexico’s CJNG After the Killing of ‘El Mencho’?

Silva, who had a $5 million bounty on his head from the US government, was a prominent regional commander for the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG). His high-profile arrest came after the group’s former leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho,” was tracked down and killed in the state of Jalisco in February 2026. One of Silva’s top financial operators, César Alejandro N, alias “El Güero Conta,” was captured the same day as him in the Zapopan area of Guadalajara.

El Jardinero’s 20-Year Criminal Career

Silva’s criminal activity spanned more than two decades, including a stint in prison in the United States on drug trafficking charges in the early 2000s. As he rose in the ranks of the CJNG after returning to Mexico, he became infamous for allegedly orchestrating a 2015 ambush on a police convoy in Jalisco that killed 15 officers. He was arrested in connection with that crime but later acquitted and released.

From coordinating a significant part of the CJNG’s synthetic drug production to managing other criminal rackets like timeshare fraud and brokering strategic criminal alliances, Silva’s removal leaves a major hole in the criminal group’s leadership structure.

The Center of the CJNG’s Synthetic Drug Operation

Silva’s primary base of operations was the state of Nayarit, where he was eventually captured, but he also oversaw CJNG drug trafficking operations that spanned Jalisco, Zacatecas, Michoacán, Morelos, and Guerrero, according to US authorities.

Nayarit is particularly important due to its vast coastline, which is used to receive cocaine shipments sent to Mexico from Central and South America. Its highway system and proximity to the US-Mexico border make it an important trafficking corridor connecting the CJNG’s home base of Jalisco to consumers in the United States.

SEE ALSO: What the Story of Meth Tells Us About the Future of Mexico’s CJNG

In 2021, US prosecutors in the District of Columbia indicted Silva on cocaine and heroin trafficking charges, as well as weapons offenses. Those accusations were accompanied by sanctions from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which described Silva as a “significant foreign narcotics trafficker.”

Silva allegedly also managed several synthetic drug laboratories in the states of Jalisco and Zacatecas, and reportedly oversaw a fleet of small aircraft and clandestine runways used to transport drug shipments into and out of Mexico. 

Mexico’s marines tried to capture Silva in 2023 in a luxurious apartment in Zapopan, an upscale area in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, where he was allegedly posing as a businessman and art collector, but he escaped. 

A Timeshare Fraud Empire

Silva’s criminal operations allegedly extended beyond drug trafficking. In recent years, the CJNG has pioneered time share fraud schemes in resort towns in Nayarit and Jalisco, including the tourist hotspot of Puerto Vallarta.

SEE ALSO: CJNG Reaps Revenues From Tourist Real Estate Scam in Mexico

Silva allegedly oversaw the CJNG’s timeshare fraud operations in Nayarit, managing a network of fraudsters who collected payments from different call centers operated by the group.

A Strategic Alliance in Jeopardy?

El Mencho also entrusted Silva to make strategic moves on behalf of the group.

In 2025, Silva reportedly helped broker an alliance between the CJNG and the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel to support their battle against the rival Mayiza faction. The arrangement allegedly included CJNG operatives providing reinforcements on the ground in Sinaloa.

Whether Silva’s capture will disrupt that agreement in any way remains to be seen, as he was not the only CJNG commander standing up that alliance in Sinaloa and other strategic corridors along the US-Mexico border.

Featured image: CJNG leader El Jardinero arrested in Mexico. Credit: Mexican government