The Peter Zeihan Podcast Series - El Jardinero Gets Trimmed by Mexican Authorities || Peter Zeihan

Episode Date: May 7, 2026

Mexican authorities have arrested Audias Flores Silva (aka El Jardinero...not the scariest nickname I've heard), a senior figure in the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.Join the Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/PeterZeihanFull Newsletter: https://bit.ly/4cJfPa6

This episode sponsored by Forkful. Most meal delivery services promise healthy food, but look closer, and you'll often find cheap industrial seed oils hiding in the ingredients. Forkful does things differently. Forkful delivers chef-prepared meals made with premium ingredients you'd expect at a great restaurant, from center-cut filet mignon to wild-caught lobster mac and cheese, and every meal is 100% seed oil-free. Instead of canola or soybean oil, Forkful chefs cook with extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, and grass-fed butter, because better fats make better food.

Meals arrive fresh, never frozen, with clear nutrition and ingredient transparency, so you always know exactly what you're eating. Restaurant quality meals, real ingredients, no seed oils. Discover Forkful today at Forkful Meals.com. Peter Zion here coming to you from Colorado. Today we're going to talk about an arrest in Mexico, a guy by the name of Audius Flores Silva, also known as El Dagnanero, the Gardner, was a high-up leader in the Holisco New Generation Cartel. He was arrested on the 28th of April, and barring surprises, we will never hear from him again. If you remember back a few months ago, El Mancho, who was the leader of the Holistical New Generation cartel was killed in a raid by the Mexican authorities with some

intel provided by the United States. And so the question has been who, if anyone, is going to be able to take over. So quick backstory, then we'll look forward. Historically speaking, in the last decade, we've had two big cartel alliances form and dominate the organized crime space in Mexico. First, you had the Holisco New Generation, which was run as a corporate entity by a guy by the name of El Chapo. that became the largest organized crime group on the planet, as well as the largest one in the United States and the New Mexico. Basically, he had this idea that drug smuggling is our primary business, so we're not going to muck with anything else that is not that. And in doing so, he basically bought the loyalty of a lot of local governments throughout the system. Eventually, that became a massive corporate empire, and the Obama administration made him public enemy number one.

eventually we got him. He's serving a permanent sentence in the United States now. That meant that the Simoloa cartel started to break down from the inside, and El Mancho's kids, Los Chupitos, started running their own little factions, as well as other regional leaders and even their accountant. That led to a break that allowed Holisco New Generation to rise to become the most powerful organized crime group on the planet and in the United States and in Mexico. Run by a guy named El Mancho,

Holisco New Generation had a very different corporate philosophy. It's more of a franchise model, but everyone was basically told, you know, when you go into a new town, you shoot the police chief and maybe a bunch of random people just to make it very clear who's in charge.

And in doing so, they generate a lot more fear. Their income isn't as strong. They are not as diversified, and they're more likely to come up against resistance from the state, especially in the United States, because of that.

But that doesn't mean It's a model that doesn't work. Anyway, when El Manchel fell, because it's kind of a franchise model, everyone started going their own direction. And El Giardineiro is one of the guys who basically tried to come up with a new path. And what made him particularly interesting is while he is a regional leader, specifically in the northwestern part of Mexico, he reached out to Los Chapitos to basically cut a deal. See, Holisco New Generation is more powerful militarily within Mexico, no doubt there. But the remnants of the Sinaloa cartel have a better distribution system within the United States. So if you put the two together, just in that tactical manner, you could really produce, not necessarily a super cartel,

but you could shove a lot more cocaine through the system. With Jardinero gone, and with half the Chapito is either dead or in jail, that's probably. probably not going to happen now, and that's probably a good thing. Just keep in mind, when you have an organization, whether it is Sinaloa or Holisco, that doesn't have a clear leader, you tend to get a lot of competition within the factions, and eventually that turns into a shooting war. So Jardineiro, for example, was in charge a lot of the militant aspects, and now that he's gone, he isn't there to kind of hold a lid on everything else. So this would suggest a lot more violence, as Helisco No Generation.

breaks down. And so yes, the U.S. and Mexico, as in particular, are getting some of the kingpins, and that feels really good. But it does change the personnel leadership, the personal structure of these things. And without that top layer, it becomes a lot more violent and doesn't necessarily stop the flow of cocaine. So Mexico's near-term future is probably more fighting as the most violent cartel they have ever had now falls into infighting as well. The only real solution to this is actually a pretty simple one. Don't do cocaine! And if everyone would abide by those three words,

this would all just go away. This episode sponsored by Forkful. Most meal delivery services promise healthy food, but look closer, and you'll often find cheap industrial seed oils hiding in the ingredients. Forkful does things differently. Forkful delivers chef-prepared meals, made with premium ingredients you'd expect at a great restaurant,

from center-cut filet mignon to wild-caught lobster mac and cheese, and every meal is 100% seed oil-free. Instead of canola or soybean oil, forkful chefs cook with extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, and grass-fed butter, because better fats make better food. Meals arrive fresh, never frozen, with clear nutrition and ingredient transparency, so you always know exactly what you're eating.

Restaurant-quality meals. real ingredients, no seed oils. Discover Forkful today at Forkful Meals.com.