Who Is ‘El Tanque’? Iván Cazarín Molina, Once Presented as the CJNG’s No. 2, Has Now Been Arrested 4 Times Since 2010
Iván Cazarín Molina, “El Tanque,” the alleged Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) fuel-theft boss arrested Monday in Zapopan, Jalisco, has now been captured four times since 2010, La Silla Rota reported Oct. 7, 2026. Here is who he is, what each arrest involved, and what is still unknown.
Four arrests in 16 years
According to La Silla Rota, the Army first detained him in March 2010 at a drug lab in Cocula, Jalisco. He was identified at the time under another name, Víctor Hugo Delgado Rentería, and released. On July 10, 2013, then-Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam announced a second arrest in Jalisco.
In November 2015, Federal Police Commissioner Enrique Galindo announced a third capture in Tlajomulco and presented him as the CJNG’s No. 2, La Silla Rota reported. Diario de Tabasco dates that arrest to Nov. 18, 2015. Galindo blamed him for the May 2015 attack on a military helicopter in Villa Purificación; La Silla Rota puts the death toll Galindo gave at seven, while Infobae reports nine killed. The sources reviewed do not explain when or why he was freed after 2015.
The fourth arrest came Oct. 5, 2026, when Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch described him as a regional CJNG operator in Veracruz, Oaxaca, Tabasco and Puebla, close to the late “El Mencho.” Officials link him to homicide, extortion, kidnapping, fuel theft, money laundering and drug trafficking. These are allegations; he has not been convicted.
The U.S. sanctions and the Tabasco links
The U.S. Treasury sanctioned him in September 2024, saying he reported directly to El Mencho and ran Pemex pipeline taps earning tens of millions of dollars a year. Sanctions are not criminal charges. Diario de Tabasco, citing military intelligence documents, reported Oct. 6 that he built ties with La Barredora, the Tabasco group linked to ex-state security chief Hernán Bermúdez Requena.
Part of a Zapopan pattern
Infobae counted El Tanque as the fourth high-priority target arrested in Zapopan residential neighborhoods between Sept. 9 and Oct. 5, after “El Brilloso,” tied to the killing of Uruapan Mayor Carlos Manzo; “El Canguro”; and ex-Navy captain “Capitán Sol.” He is now with the FGR’s organized-crime unit (FEMDO).
NMás report on how the arrest unfolded:
Sources
- La Silla Rota, “Las cuatro vidas de ‘El Tanque’,” Oct. 7, 2026
- Infobae (Anayeli Tapia Sandoval), “Del caso Carlos Manzo a ‘El Tanque’: en menos de un mes caen 4 objetivos prioritarios en Zapopan,” Oct. 7, 2026
- Diario de Tabasco, “Cae ‘El Tanque’, operador regional del CJNG en el Sureste; tejió nexos con La Barredora en Tabasco,” Oct. 6, 2026
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Targets Key Funding Source of Deadly Fentanyl-Trafficking Cartel CJNG,” Sept. 10, 2024
- Video: NMás on YouTube
- Photos: EFE, via La Silla Rota; Gabinete de Seguridad, via Infobae
Reported Oct. 7, 2026, from the sources above. Cazarín Molina has not been convicted of any crime, the sources reviewed do not name a lawyer for him, and his earlier releases have not been officially explained.