Iván Cazarín Molina — the alleged regional leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) — was captured on Monday by federal authorities, Security Minister (SSPC) Omar García Harfuch confirmed in a social media post.
The detention was the result of a joint operation carried out by Army special forces and the SSPC’s Operations Group, with information from the National Intelligence Center. The National Guard also collaborated, Harfuch said, as did Criminal Investigation Agency investigators from the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR), who identified his movements and located him.
Cae en Jalisco Iván N, alias “El Tanque”, presunto operador del CJNG
El titular de la Secretaría de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana (SSPC), Omar García Harfuch, informó sobre la detención en Zapopan de Iván N, alias “El Tanque”, presunto operador regional del Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación en Veracruz, Oaxaca, Tabasco y Puebla.
El operativo conjunto incluyó al Ejército, la SSPC, la Fiscalía General de la República y el Centro Nacional de Inteligencia. El detenido está vinculado a homicidios y al atentado contra un helicóptero militar en 2015.
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Cazarín, aka “El Tanque” (“The Tank”), was apprehended in Zapopan, Jalisco, part of the greater Guadalajara metropolitan area and the same city in which the authorities captured alleged fuel smuggler Miguel Ángel Solano Ruiz, aka “Capitán Sol,” just three days earlier.
Prosecutors say Cazarín — whose area of operation covered Veracruz, Oaxaca, Tabasco and Puebla — ran a massive fuel theft network and say they have sufficient evidence to charge him with homicide, kidnapping, money laundering and drug trafficking, as well.
Harfuch identified “El Tanque” as a target related to various criminal activities — including 6.8 tons of marijuana seized in Veracruz in July 2024 and the August 2026 kidnapping for ransom of an employee of the state-owned utility company.
El Tanque was also allegedly involved in the rocket-propelled grenade attack on an Army helicopter in Jalisco in 2015, in which nine law enforcement officers lost their lives.
Six months later, federal authorities announced the capture of Cazarín, identifying him as one of the main operators of the CJNG. However, he was only charged with possession of illegal weapons.
The Latinus website says El Tanque was in prison at least through May 2016 when he was transferred from the Altiplano Maximum Security Prison in México state to Puente Grande in Jalisco, but reported that “it is unknown when he was released.”
By 2021, El Tanque was in Tabasco, where he had allegedly established links with “La Barredora,” a crime gang linked to then state Security Minister Hernán Bermúdez Requena.
In September 2024, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified him as the leader of a fuel-smuggling network and tax evasion scheme in which at least eight other people and 26 companies were involved.
The OFAC said the fuel theft operation generated tens of millions of dollars annually for the CJNG.
With reports from La Jornada, El País, CBS News and Proceso
