Mexican authorities arrested an alleged leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in Zapopan on Tuesday, and the charge list reads like a tour of what the cartel actually does for money.

Ivan Cazarin Molina, known as The Tank, is accused of homicides, extortion, illegal deprivation of liberty, hydrocarbon theft, money laundering and drug trafficking.

Mexican Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch laid them out. “Investigations link him to homicides, extortion, illegal deprivation of liberty, hydrocarbon theft, money laundering, and drug trafficking,” he said.

He is also accused of involvement in a 2015 attack on a Mexican Army helicopter in Jalisco. Military personnel and federal police officers were killed.

The United States has been after him for a while. The Treasury Department sanctioned him in September 2024 over his alleged role in fuel theft operations tied to the cartel.

He is identified as part of the inner circle around El Mencho, the cartel’s founder. The Drug Enforcement Administration coordinated with Mexican authorities on the arrest.

A vehicle, a firearm and various drugs were seized. Fox News reported the arrest.

The fuel theft is the item most Americans would skip past, and it is the one worth stopping on.

Hydrocarbon theft means tapping Mexico’s state oil pipelines and selling what comes out. In Mexico it is called huachicoleo, and it has grown into one of the cartels’ largest revenue streams.

That matters for a reason that goes beyond Mexico’s budget. A cartel funded by stolen fuel is not dependent on any single drug.

Seize a shipment of fentanyl and you cost it a load. Tap a pipeline and it has an income that does not cross a border, does not involve a courier, and does not care what the DEA interdicts this month.

It is also why Treasury sanctions landed on a man for fuel rather than narcotics. Following the money led to a pipeline instead of a lab.

The arrest is a real one and the cartel will absorb it. CJNG is the most aggressive trafficking organization operating in the Western Hemisphere and it has replaced captured leadership before.

Whether Cazarin Molina ends up in an American courtroom is the open question. The United States sanctioned him and the DEA helped take him, but he was arrested by Mexico on Mexican charges, and extradition is a separate fight that takes years when it happens at all.

The charges are allegations. Nothing has been proven in court.