El Jardinero Gets Trimmed by Mexican Authorities || Apr. 30, 2026
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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.
El Jardinero had been trying to forge cooperation with the Sinaloa Cartel and utilize their distribution network, but his arrest will likely kill that effort. The removal of El Jardinero will further destabilize the cartel, as a fight for power breaks out and factions begin to splinter off.
While this arrest is a positive overall, Mexico's near-term outlook will likely be much more unstable. Oh, and drugs flow to the U.S. won't stop until all of y'all cool it with the white stuff.
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Comments (47)
Your cred would be improved significantly if you pronounced El Jardinero correctly, and didn’t confuse El Chapo with El Mencho.
I've been doing my part in Europe by not doing cocaine
That's def not how you pronounce Jardinero
One could also just legalize it, at which point the farmers make money, and the entire smuggling business falls apart. One could start with legalizing Mate de Coca, of which a cup contains roughly 1/10000 of a line of coke’s worth of cocaine, but which would give farmers a legal product to sell. Furthermore, where are all the “right over my own body” activists? If someone wants to ruin their health (smoking, drinking, snorting, eating fast food) then the government’s job is to inform, not to prohibit. Alcohol prohibition didn’t work, and the war on drugs will fail just as badly. And just as then, criminalization only leads to organized crime and wealth accumulation and political influence with people who shouldn’t have it. Let pharmaceutical industry make money instead of drug lords🤷🏻♂️
As a thought experiment, would it be possible to test the legalization of all drugs, but subject to FDA regulation and taxes, similar to those on alcohol and cigarettes, be possible to test in a place like Hawaii, Guam or Puerto Rico?
Pete mate, You're Q and A sounded really interesting buy not interesting enough to get up at 4am.
But we like Coke. We need to find a new drug. Half of the problem with coke is it looks like you are in the uppercut of society. Like cigarettes were in the 1800nds.
Dude. J is pronounced like H in English. It's "hardinero"
I believe it's pronounced yar-di-na-ro
Ya know, I can see a business opportunity in there. Need T-shirts with the slogan "Peter says Don't do cocaine" 🤣
Nice try, Peter, but no ;)
Peter one of the reasons I love listening to you Is that you generally avoid simplistic explanations and solutions. That is why your "don't do cocaine" solution which you have repeated more than once is about as effective as Nancy Reagan's " just say, no" This topic deserves a little bit more thought. What will it take to cut demand for cocaine?
It doesn't work. I'd recommend reading "Drug Use for Grown Ups" for an expansion in your narrative. The stats about addiction don't support any common narratives.
People are purpose driven. When there's a major threat or opportunity, people become motivated and get busy in a good way. When there is no purposeful need, idle people do drugs and crime. The local cartel has a purpose, offers opportunity. World wars create purpose. Hopefully we can create a better sense of purpose than war or cartels. Maybe that's why global warming was invented?
Its pronounced Hardy-Neh-Ro.
People still do cocaine? That's sooo 1980's
Boomers can afford it.
Haha I get the title now heheheh
Regarding El Chapo, he's now hanging out in a "care facility" in Florence, CO. :)
"Just say no". C'mon man. This is the most irrational, failed and antiquated position I've seen in my lifetime.
Maybe, but he's not wrong. "Don't do cocaine" is great advice.
How many old cocaine addicts do you know?
You gotta learn how to pronounce them Spanish names
In one of the early Trailer Park Boys seasons, Ricky pronounces "Jalapeno" with a good old fashioned Nova Scotia "Juh-lap-in-oh", and ridicules an actual Mexican's extremely correct enunciation. PZ seems to be at least trying.
If the US and everyone else would decriminalize ALL drugs there wouldn't BE drug cartels! In a sense, the biggest drug cartels are governments.
There would be legal drug cartels. You think these guys, with their millions, is just got to stop making drugs? They will just get LLCs and sell it anyway.
I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but I really enjoy the recurring PSA with respect to cocaine. Great work, sir!
Loved this. I wonder if one of these new factions gave El Jardinero up to expedite succession.
It doesn't matter how much they flood it into the US, I have not and will not ever do coke. Who's with me? Wishful thinking 😏
It’s pronounced HAR-Dee-Nare-Oh
With the amount of cocaine in the United States you’d think we would have fewer overweight people… Talk about a K shaped economy
Cocaine is a wicked trap, gets about everyone who plays. Stay away if you care about yourself, and if you don't. Ain't worth it...
Ok, Nancy. You know people aren't going to do that. How about we stop attacking the symptoms of drug addiction in an endless game of whack-a-mole and treat the underlying causes like inequality, lack of opportunity and poverty? Funny how all of those things just keep getting worse and the drug problem never goes away.
Inequality, lack of opportunity and poverty are the source of coke heads? Please.
Every time Peter says dont do cocaine...this plays in my head. https://share.google/xCR5lvYG0CLeOEHka
Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Drugs don’t kill people, stupid people that do drugs kill themselves. Why can’t the law and order conservatives square these two statements? Why blame the “narco-terrorist” but not the gun makers? FYI I don’t blame the gun makers, but I enjoy pointing out the mental inconsistency
I know it's very ill-liberal to say this, but to re-enforce the concept of "Don't Do Cocaine," maybe mandatory jail terms with enhancement for habitual offenses might discourage drug use more than any other known solutions. Wide-spread, condoned, and flaunted drug use by various entertainers and celebrities comes to mind. Yes, I think jailing rock stars and your favorite movie actor might deter some folks. OK, beat me up. I know I did bad. I can take it. I hope.
Or you can go total Libertarian. Legalize all drugs. Allow stupid people to ruin their lives and overdose. Why do we need to be a nanny state and make it illegal for people to do stupid things to themselves? We can also open the borders and let hard working immigrants do the work that lazy drug addicted Americans can’t do.
Can Mexico not replicate an El Salvador like law enforcement policy? Mainly prison camps, locking up everyone associated to gangs. El Salvador, a country of 6 million people locked up 90 thousand criminals. Violent crime is 98% down. From the most dangerous place on earth to safer than most US cities. Why can’t Mexico do something like it? They are richer more developed, what’s stopping them? Lack of political will or lack of capability?
Let’s hope Mexico doesn’t commit a massive crime against humanity, those El Salvador prisons have literally innocent people in them who have never gone before a judge… It’s like advocating for the Nazis or Stalinist Russias prison system
So, in other words, the same thing that’s happening in Iran, (sort of). Take out the top tier bosses, and now you’re left with the most radical, violent factions, fighting both us, and each other. Sadly, I doubt we’ll stop our addictions to cocaine or oil, anytime soon.
Yes. That's why if you decide to wage that kind of war you don't quit until you win or lose. Take the gloves off instead of tying hands. The USA has the biggest military in the world, and no generals who know how or have the will to fight and win. Ultimately, it might be better to eliminate the military altogether until you really need it AND find a world class, champion general. ( I understand some of that doesn't make literal sense.)
Hey, not to be outdone, it appears the U.S. is attempting to dismantle one of our own homegrown Drug Cartels, sans violence! https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/purdue-pharma-oxycontin-plea-deal/
For the record, Coalie doesn’t do cocaine, he abuses his Vyvanse prescription like a normal, upstanding American citizen.
New email link gets sent straight to the spam bin. 😭
Here is a helpful article to fix that: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003578386-I-m-not-getting-emails-from-Patreon
Peter, I notice on the World Bank website that the Gini index measure of income inequality for Mexico has been dropping slightly each year since 2012 (from about 49.6 in 2012 to 42.6 in 2024). If this trend continues, do you forsee the drop in inequality as having any effect on the ability of cartels to fill their ranks with new recruits?