Although the United States government is offering five million dollars for his capture, little is known for sure about Audias Flores Silva, alias “El Jardinero.” Although his name has been on the radar for a decade, it wasn’t until last year that his name gained greater traction after he established himself as a key player in the operational alliance between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Los Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The Treasury Department has designated him as a major drug trafficker, links him to international drug trafficking, and the DEA considers him one of the most dangerous active operators. However, his story remains shrouded in secrecy, his whereabouts are uncertain, while he has risen within the criminal group of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho.”
Amid his operational rise, El Mencho’s right-hand man also burst onto the scene in popular culture. On January 17, 2025, the corrido “El Jardinero” (The Gardener) was released on YouTube, performed by the group Los Farmerz, and has accumulated over 561,000 views to date.
It’s a piece that musically exposes this CJNG operative’s vision of power, his loyalties, and his position in the reorganization of Mexican drug trafficking. The song functions as a covert autobiography, written in the first person.
“If a Bucanitas sees me uncovering, / we’ll surely be celebrating / because life has treated me like that. / Maybe I’ve learned to play it cool, / the important thing is that I’ve known how to enjoy it.”
The corrido begins with a festive scene, but not gratuitous. El Jardinero celebrates with Bucanitas, a popular whiskey brand, as a symbolic gesture of “standing on a good footing.” The mention that life has dealt him “badly” reveals an awareness of risk, but also of skill: “I’ve learned to play it cool,” he says. It’s a declaration of survival.
“To clarify, I don’t sell flowers, / but what I sow, I reap. / What I say I have proven with actions. / Some people call me ‘The Gardener,’ / what I produce are bales of money.”
This is where the nickname that gives the ballad its title appears. The Gardener doesn’t grow flowers, but he does plant “his own” and harvests it with quantifiable results: tons of money. It’s a way of alluding to his role as a key operator in trafficking routes, synthetic drug cultivation, and territorial administration.
