Martín Arzola Ortega

Martín Arzola Ortega (Latin American Spanish: [maɾˈtin aɾˈsola oɾˈteɣa]; 1976 or 1977 – 31 July 2019), commonly referred to by his alias "El 53", was a Mexican convicted drug lord and former high-ranking leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). He worked under Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (alias "El Mencho"), the former leader of the CJNG. Arzola Ortega began his criminal career in 1998 as a cargo truck thief and eventually joined the Milenio Cartel, the predecessor group of the CJNG. After several of his bosses were arrested and/or killed, he founded the CJNG with other defectors in the 2010s.

Arzola Ortega was responsible for leading a squad of assassins in multiple municipalities across Jalisco to fight off rival cartel groups. He used a network of police officers to gather intelligence and facilitate his drug-related activities. In 2011, he was arrested by the Mexican Federal Police and charged with drug trafficking, organized crime involvement, and possession of military-exclusive firearms. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2015, and was serving his sentence at the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1, a maximum-security prison in the State of Mexico. He was released in late 2018 after one of his sentences was overturned and he was credited with time served. In 2019, he was killed by a teenage gunman in Jalisco.