US Agencies Target CJNG Leader “El Jardinero” in Drug Trafficking Case

U.S. prosecutors allege that the Justice Department infiltrated Audias Flores Silva, known as “El Jardinero,” a senior commander of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). Using informants, U.S. agents tracked the leader’s cocaine shipments that crossed from Mexico into Texas via Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa. In January 2017, a tractor‑trailer carrying about 45 kg of cocaine was seized in McAllen, Texas, and in October 2017 another truck with roughly 40 kg was intercepted in Laredo, Texas. The indictment says the cartel distributed the drugs in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Illinois and Texas, and laundered the cash proceeds in Chicago.

The complaint also details that “El Jardinero” has overseen heroin production in Nayarit, where he bought poppy‑cultivation land in 2007 and was observed visiting the fields in 2021. He is described as one of the founders of the CJNG, which was previously led by Rubén Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (“El Mencho”) until his capture in February 2022.