Audias Flores Silva, alias “El Jardinero”, now faces additional charges in the United States for allegedly trafficking cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine, as well as laundering money tied to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
The revised indictment broadens the charges initially brought in August 2020, when Flores Silva was accused of trafficking cocaine and heroin into the United States. Prosecutors now allege that he also trafficked methamphetamine and conspired to launder drug proceeds from the U.S. back into Mexico.
“‘El Jardinero’ believed he would take control of the violent foreign terrorist organization CJNG after the death of ‘El Mencho.’ He was wrong,” DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said.
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“The new indictment demonstrates the combined strength of the DEA and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces in dismantling cartel command-and-control structures and holding their leaders accountable,” he added.
“El Jardinero” was captured on April 27 in the community of El Mirador, in the state of Nayarit, during an operation carried out by special forces from Mexico’s Navy Ministry with intelligence provided by U.S. agencies. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of at least 10 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
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“Audias Flores Silva is charged with trafficking large quantities of cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine into our country and funneling the proceeds back to Mexico,?? said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Cole also thanked Mexico’s Navy Ministry “for arresting ‘El Jardinero’ in Mexico. The DEA and our partners will continue relentlessly pursuing the leaders of these terrorist organizations, dismantling their global operations, and protecting the American people from the violence, poison, and chaos they spread.”
Mexican authorities consider his arrest a major blow to the CJNG leadership, as he had been identified as a possible successor to cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho,” who was killed in February in Jalisco during a military operation.
Flores Silva, 45, is originally from the state of Michoacán. According to Mexican authorities, he served as Oseguera Cervantes’ head of security before taking over part of the cartel’s operations in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Estado de México, and Zacatecas, overseeing drug production and trafficking routes as well as clandestine laboratories. He has also been linked to fuel theft and extortion.
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