CJNG 'Cobra' Cell Dismantled in Colima — 3 Arrested Including 'El 51,' 3 Killed in Prior Confrontations

Mexican authorities dismantled the CJNG 'Cobra' cell operating in Colima state, with six cell members removed — three arrested and three killed in prior armed confrontations. The key arrestee José Antonio 'El 51' was identified via video analysis as a principal perpetrator of seven homicides committed in two weeks, including the April 14 double homicide at the El Pichón bakery (owner and his brother) and the murder of a state police officer on January 2, 2026. The three detained on April 15 with firearms were: Jorge Alberto 'El 53,' Manolis 'El 49,' and José Antonio 'El 51.' Three cell members — Erick 'Güero/El 50,' Adán Israel 'El Chino,' and José Antonio 'El Flaco/48' — had been killed in prior confrontations with security forces. Colima State Security Secretary Ricardo Gómez explained the Cobra cell's operational security model: six-member rotating squads of 'outsiders' recruited from Jalisco, Colima, and Michoacán who avoid local recognition by cycling between states, hiding in safe houses after crimes, and escaping via rural dirt roads. The model illustrates CJNG's post-Mencho adaptation — maintaining operational tempo in Colima's Port of Manzanillo corridor without fixed local infrastructure vulnerable to police penetration. The Cobra cell operated on behalf of the El Sapo faction, which manages CJNG's Port of Manzanillo and Chinese fentanyl precursor supply networks. The dismantling came during the first week of the fractura total (declared April 11) and shortly after eight Manzanillo police were arrested for leaking C5i intelligence to CJNG (April 16) and three CJNG operatives were killed on the Colima-Manzanillo highway (April 17) — a sustained enforcement sequence against El Sapo's port-corridor infrastructure.