Overview
- Federal agents executed search warrants at five Guadalajara properties and arrested José Elías Celis Contreras, known as “El Chipo,” and Jorge Ernesto Águila Corona on Tuesday, then handed them to ministerial prosecutors.
- The raids were carried out by the Agencia de Investigación Criminal, the Fiscalía General de la República and the Secretaría de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana with support from the Secretaría de Marina and targeted sites in Jardines de Santa Isabel, La Esperanza and El Salvador.
- Authorities seized short firearms, ammunition, vehicles, phones, documents, chemical inputs, packaged and unpackaged drugs and machinery apparently used for filling and packaging, all of which will be forensically examined.
- Officials say intelligence links “El Chipo” to Audias Flores Silva, alias “El Jardinero,” who controls regional trafficking corridors and extortion schemes, and to laundering networks tied to an operator known as “El Güero Conta.”
- Investigators will use forensic results and legal review to define charges and the case’s next steps, and officials say the operation is one phase in ongoing efforts to weaken the CJNG’s money flows, logistics and extortion of transport businesses.