Another Jalisco New Generation Cartel member falls. This morning, Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch announced the capture of Leonardo Arturo N., alias “El Carnal.”
The former state police chief of Tabasco was arrested in Chiapas. He is linked to the organization known as “La Barredora” (The Sweeper). The order was clear, short, and definitive: advance, we want him alive.
It was 6:48 a.m. when an armored convoy surrounded the Bienestar Social neighborhood in Tuxtla Gutiérrez. The air was thick, the sky opaque, as if it sensed what was coming. A 55-year-old man walked slowly along an unpaved street, wearing a cap and a sports shirt, checking his phone every thirty seconds.
He didn’t know that at that moment his freedom had just expired. Leonardo Arturo Leiva Ávalos, alias “El Carnal,” was arrested without a single shot being fired. But what his arrest meant shook the foundations of national security. He wasn’t just any criminal. He was a former director of the Tabasco state police, an official with a badge, a government salary, and direct access to La Barredora’s criminal organization.
For years, he leaked information, protected routes, and manipulated investigations. He was appointed by the state government itself in February 2021, and while wearing his uniform and giving official speeches, he secretly coordinated extortion, kidnappings, and executions. This time, the state acted first.
The operation was carried out by members of the Mexican Army (Sedena), the Mexican Navy (SEMAR), the National Guard, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), the State Secretariat of Public Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), and Special Forces from Tabasco and Chiapas. Days of surveillance, hours of tracking, and only one opportunity. When they intercepted him, El Carnal didn’t resist; he simply lowered his gaze. In his backpack, he carried an encrypted radio, a notebook with initials, an unregistered handgun, and several bags containing what appeared to be crystal meth.
But the real weight wasn’t in the objects, but in his story. Because he wasn’t just a criminal; he was the closest associate of Hernán Bermúdez Requena, alias “El Abuelo” (The Grandfather), former Secretary of Public Security in Tabasco and considered one of the founders of La Barredora (The Sweeper). The same Bermúdez Requena who now sleeps behind the walls of the Altiplano prison, extradited from Paraguay after months on the run.
Together, they built a criminal protection network from within the institutions. They circulated prisoner lists, leaked information about operations, sowed fear, all under the cover of official badges. This morning, the head of the SSPC (Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection) confirmed the arrest on his official account: the State will not yield one more inch.
What few know is how they found him and, above all, who betrayed him. What triggered his capture wasn’t an investigation, but an internal leak from an unexpected source.
In February 2021, Tabasco was experiencing an artificial calm. The humid climate mingled with the smell of gasoline in the avenues. The vendors opened their stalls at dawn, ignoring the patrol cars with tinted windows and officers who avoided eye contact.
That month, Leonardo Arturo Leiva Ávalos was appointed director general of the Tabasco State Police. He was introduced by then-Governor Adán Augusto López, with the public backing of Hernán Bermúdez Requena. In front of the cameras, he swore to serve the people, but his true loyalty lay elsewhere.
From his first week, military intelligence reports documented changes: he modified the police’s operational structure, reassigned officers, canceled patrols in key areas, and reinforced others without tactical explanation. He did it all with an institutional smile and issued orders that bypassed the General Staff.
The first irregularity was subtle: prisoners transferred without judicial authorization. The second, disappearances of merchants who refused to pay extortion fees. The third, leaks of operations to criminal gangs minutes before they were to be carried out. And in all those movements appeared La Barredora, the armed wing of the CJNG, known for its brutality and capacity for institutional infiltration
Source: special24h
