Mexican special forces arrest top commander of powerful cartel

Mexican special forces have arrested one of the top commanders of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel in the western state of Nayarit.

Audias Flores, known as “El Jardinero”, is a regional commander in control of swathes of CJNG territory along Mexico’s Pacific coast. He was considered a potential successor to Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho”, who ran the cartel and was killed in a security operation in February.

Security forces surrounded a cabin in El Mirador, 12 miles (20km) north of the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, where Flores was being protected by a perimeter of about 30 pickup trucks and more than 60 gunmen, according to a press release from Mexico’s navy, which led the operation.

Flores’s escorts scattered as a diversion but he was located as he tried to hide in a drainage ditch, it added.

A US Department of State wanted poster of Audias Flores. Photograph: US Department of State/Reuters

“The operation was carried out with surgical precision without a single shot being fired,” the navy said in a statement.

Videos shared by Mexico’s security minister, Omar García Harfuch, on social media showed aerial footage of the arrest as helicopters hovered overhead during the operation, which the navy said followed 19 months of surveillance and involved more than 500 troops, six helicopters and several planes.

The navy also used intelligence provided by US authorities, including aerial surveillance, according to a Mexican security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

It was not immediately clear if Flores would face charges in Mexico, but García Harfuch said he was wanted for extradition by US authorities, which had offered a $5m (£3.7m) reward for his arrest.

Later in the day, Mexican authorities announced they had arrested César Alejandro “N”, nicknamed “El Güero Conta”, who Mexican authorities say was a key money launderer for Flores.