Mexican special forces have arrested Audias Flores, known as “El Jardinero”, one of the top commanders of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), as well as his chief financial operator, Mexico’s Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch said.

Flores, a regional commander controlling swaths of CJNG territory along Mexico’s Pacific coast, was considered a potential successor to Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho”, who was killed by security forces in February. The US government had offered a $5 million reward for his capture.

The arrest operation in Nayarit involved more than 500 troops, six helicopters and several planes, according to the Mexican Navy. Flores was hiding in a cabin in El Mirador, about 20 km north of Puerto Vallarta, protected by some 30 pickup trucks and more than 60 gunmen.

Later on Monday, security secretary Garcia Harfuch said that Flores’s financial operator, Cesar Alejandro “N”, alias “El Guero Conta”, was arrested in a joint operation in Zapopan. He is accused of laundering illicit funds through companies and frontmen, as well as acquiring aircraft, vessels, houses, ranches, and investing in tequila production.

The Navy said the operation was carried out “with surgical precision without a single shot being fired.” Flores was located as he tried to hide in a drainage ditch.

The arrest, which reportedly involved intelligence provided by US authorities, comes as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum warned that Washington’s covert operations in her country must not be repeated, following the deaths of two CIA agents in a car accident in Chihuahua earlier this month.

Sheinbaum said her government had sent a diplomatic note to Washington, demanding that unauthorized US officials not be present at anti-narcotics operations. She also called for clarification of the circumstances of the crash, which killed two CIA agents and two Mexican officials.

Source: www.aljazeera.com