According to Mexico’s Navy and Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch, Alvarez was detained in Zapopan, in the Guadalajara metropolitan area, in an operation involving the Navy, the National Intelligence Center and other authorities. The Navy said the arrest followed intelligence shared by the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
Officials say Alvarez headed the CJNG’s “Los Rs” cell. Harfuch said the group’s extortion targets included business owners and avocado producers — a detail that lands heavily in a country where cartel violence is not confined to battles between gunmen and the state, but reaches into ordinary work, harvests and payrolls.
Harfuch said Alvarez was wounded in a shootout during the operation and is receiving medical care. Authorities also detained 19 other people.
What is established, from the government’s own account, is that Mexico has captured a man it considers a significant CJNG operator. Harfuch said Alvarez has an outstanding arrest warrant in Mexico for aggravated homicide and another warrant for extradition to the United States. What is not established in the available reporting is the evidence underlying each allegation against him, or how much his arrest will disrupt the cartel’s operations.
Authorities have linked Alvarez to the killing of at least 19 people, including the murder of Carlos Manzo, the crime-fighting mayor of Uruapan in Michoacan, according to Al Jazeera’s report on the arrest.
The broader picture remains bleak. CJNG is one of Mexico’s two main criminal groups and competes with the Sinaloa Cartel in trafficking drugs into the US. Al Jazeera reports that, even after several top CJNG figures were apprehended following the death of founder Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, kidnapping for ransom is still reported in cartel-affected areas. The same report notes that about 134,000 people are believed to be missing across Mexico, with Jalisco recording the country’s highest number of disappearances.
Alex de Valletta 
Dua Mifsud 