Phones Seized From Alleged CJNG Member Held Nayarit Governor’s Flight Plans: Jet He Often Used Crashes in Ixtlán del Río, Killing 2 Pilots — Prosecutor Won’t Rule Out an Attack
A Cessna Citation jet that Nayarit Gov. Miguel Ángel Navarro Quintero sometimes used crashed in the mountains of Ixtlán del Río, Nayarit, on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026, killing pilot Óscar Quezada and copilot Ángel Ricardo Granados Vargas. The governor was not aboard. Nayarit’s top prosecutor said she is not ruling out that he was the target, because phones seized weeks earlier from an alleged Jalisco cartel (CJNG) member held his flight schedules, Infobae and Milenio reported on Oct. 6.
What happened to the jet
According to Infobae and El Informador, the Cessna Citation I/SP 501, registration XB-BAR, took off from Tepic’s Amado Nervo International Airport around 4 p.m. on Oct. 4, bound for Aguascalientes. About 18 minutes later it turned back toward Tepic, then dropped off radar. Infobae reported the wreckage was found Monday about three kilometers from the community of Los Mezquites. The state prosecutor’s office referred the aviation investigation to Mexico’s federal prosecutors (FGR). Mechanical failure, weather and an attack all remain open hypotheses.
‘Talibán 2’ and the governor’s flights
Prosecutor Elvia Ludmila Heredia Verdugo told reporters, as quoted by Infobae, that because the governor occasionally used that plane, “we don’t want to rule out” that he was the target. She said a man identified as “Talibán 2,” an alleged CJNG member arrested weeks before the crash, “had five cellphones, and the governor’s flights were on them.” Milenio reported the messages included aircraft registrations, times and the names of passengers. One read, “Operation tomorrow starting at 11. The governor will travel…” Milenio also reported that a former state employee, Yareli Nathali “N,” was arrested as an alleged leak of the governor’s agenda.
El Informador quoted Heredia as calling Ixtlán del Río an area where arms trafficking and criminal groups have been detected. She also flagged as suspicious that video existed from such a remote crash site.
A string of threats
Infobae’s timeline lists two August banners attributed to the CJNG, one of them naming Navarro and Heredia. It also lists two lawyers found dead in Ixtlán del Río in September. The prosecutor said they had presented themselves as defenders of CJNG figure Audias Flores Silva, “El Jardinero.” On Sept. 9, she said authorities had foiled a plan to ambush her and the governor on the Tepic–Compostela highway, and 10 people were detained. None of those arrested has been convicted, and no one has been charged over the crash.
SDPNoticias video report on the crash investigation:
Sources
- Infobae, “Desplome de aeronave del gobernador de Nayarit: Fiscalía investiga y no descarta posible atentado,” Oct. 6, 2026
- Infobae, “Narcomantas, ‘El Jardinero’ del CJNG y atentados frustrados,” Oct. 6, 2026
- Milenio, “Mensajes revelan seguimiento del CJNG a gobernador de Nayarit,” Oct. 6, 2026
- El Informador, “Nayarit: Cae avioneta usada por el gobernador Miguel Ángel Navarro,” Oct. 5, 2026
- Video: SDPNoticias on YouTube
- Photos: Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro, via Expansión Política
Reported Oct. 6, 2026, from the sources above. Investigators have not determined what caused the crash, and the sources reviewed do not name lawyers for the people arrested.