MONTERREY, April 27 (Reuters) – Mexican special forces have arrested Audias Flores, known as “El Jardinero,” one of the top commanders of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), in the western state of Nayarit, security minister Omar Garcia Harfuch said on Monday.
Flores, a regional commander in control of swathes of CJNG territory along Mexico’s Pacific coast, was considered a potential successor of Nemesio Oseguera, alias El Mencho, who ran the cartel and was killed in a security operation in February.
“He has an arrest warrant in Mexico and is also wanted by U.S. authorities for extradition,” Garcia Harfuch said in a post on X. “The U.S. government had offered a $5 million reward for his capture.”
(Reporting by Laura Gottesdiener and Ana Isabel Martinez, Writing by Sarah Morland, Editing by Daina Beth Solomon)
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