Roxanne Bradley

The leader of a Mexican criminal cartel was swept up by authorities after allegedly ordering the brutal murders of his son’s beauty influencer ex-girlfriend and a mayor.

Ramón Ángel Álvarez Ayala was arrested in late July by military personnel and law enforcement officers during a joint operation … according to multiple reports.

Mexican officials say Ayala was known as “El R-1” … he was the main leader of “Los Rs”, one of the most violent criminal organizations connected to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel — a group allegedly involved in murder, extortion and drug trafficking.

According to authorities, Ayala masterminded and financed the hit on 23-year-old beauty influencer Valeria Marquez — whose ex-boyfriend is Ayala’s son. In May 2025, Marquez was shot and killed by a gunman while livestreaming in her beauty salon in the Mexican city of Zapopan.

The gunman was seen on video pretending to be a delivery driver. He asked to confirm her name, and then shot her in the head and chest, causing her to collapse while the livestream was still up and running.

Omar Hamid García Harfuch, Mexico’s Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, said Marquez’s murder was connected to Ayala’s son, Francisco Álvarez, who allegedly threatened Márquez after they broke up.

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Authorities have arrested another man in connection with Márquez’s murder, but it’s unclear if he’s the gunman.

Police are still searching for Francisco.

In addition, Harfuch said Ayala financed and ordered the execution of Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguez, the mayor of Uruapan, a city in the Mexican state of Michoacán.

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Manzo — who often spoke out against organized crime — was shot to death during the “Day of the Dead” celebrations in November 2025.

Harfuch said 31 people have been arrested in connection with Manzo’s killing.

Special Forces Stormed His Door in Atotonilco el Alto

Álvarez Ayala was captured by special forces in downtown Atotonilco el Alto, Jalisco, in a Thursday operation that turned into a gunfight — a member of the cartel boss’s security team was killed in the raid, according to The Times of London. Mexico’s federal security secretary, Omar García Harfuch, said the arrest represented a weakening of “one of the most violent criminal structures in the country.” The Times reports Álvarez Ayala — who had been released from jail in 2022 — was the mastermind of “multiple violent acts in the region.”

The Livestreamed Killing That Shocked the World

Valeria Márquez was killed during her weekly livestream to tens of thousands of followers from her beauty salon in Zapopan, Jalisco. A gunman posing as a delivery driver walked in mid-broadcast, asked her to confirm her name — and shot her twice. Chillingly, The Times reports, she had mentioned during the broadcast that someone might want to kill her. Just hours before the slaying, the 23-year-old had posted a selfie on her Instagram Story, posing in the salon.

A Son’s Threats — and a Father’s Alleged Order

Prosecutors say the murder traced back to a romance gone dark. Márquez had been in a relationship with Francisco Álvarez, one of El R-1’s sons — and Harfuch says the son threatened her repeatedly after they split, then allegedly asked his father to have her killed. “He [Álvarez] had threatened her on several occasions and everything indicates, and this will be proven, that the son asked his father, R-1, to carry out the femicide,” Harfuch said, according to the New York Post. Both Francisco and the trigger man remain at large.

The Mayor Who Refused to Back Down

Carlos Manzo, 40, was gunned down in front of horrified supporters — with his own family in attendance — at the Day of the Dead festival in Uruapan, Michoacán, on November 1, 2025, just one month after he publicly called for “brute force” against the drug cartels. “I don’t want to be just another murdered mayor,” he had said. “But it is important not to let fear control us.” Harfuch says Álvarez Ayala financed and ordered the assassination in retaliation for Manzo’s anti-cartel crusade, and that 31 people have been arrested in connection with the killing.