Senior Jalisco cartel leader arrested in Guadalajara with US intelligence help

Mexican authorities have arrested a senior leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the country's two most powerful criminal organisations. Rafael Alvarez, known as "R2", is believed to have led the group's "Los Rs" faction. The Mexican Navy said he was captured on Sunday in Zapopan, in the Guadalajara metropolitan area, in an operation based on intelligence shared by the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

"This faction is mainly involved in extortion, drug trafficking, murder, unlawful detention, kidnapping and attacks on officials," Mexico's Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch said, adding that the extortion victims included merchants and avocado producers. Alvarez was wounded in a shootout during the operation and is receiving medical treatment, Harfuch said on X. An arrest warrant for aggravated homicide is pending against him in Mexico, along with a separate warrant for his extradition to the United States. Nineteen more people were detained in the operation, in which several agencies including the National Intelligence Center took part.

Alvarez is linked to at least 19 killings, including last year's murder of Carlos Manzo, the popular crime-fighting mayor of Uruapan in Michoacan state, a region famous for avocado production. The United States designated the cartel a foreign terrorist organisation in 2025; the group is known for violent tactics and attacks on officials, and rivals the Sinaloa Cartel for drug trafficking into the US.

Since the cartel's founder, Nemesio 'El Mencho' Oseguera, was killed in a military operation last February, many of its senior figures have been captured. Even so, kidnappings continue in areas where the gangs operate; about 134,000 people are estimated to be missing in Mexico, with Jalisco state recording the highest number.