Who Is Chino Payaso

Part One of a three-part Cartel Insider editorial series on Chino Payaso, his arrest and the court case that followed.

Óscar Luna Colunga is known as Chino Payaso—the “Chinese Clown.” His reported base was Independencia, in Monterrey. Authorities accuse him of supplying criminal cells with drugs and weapons, trafficking arms and laundering money. That alleged supply role is what makes him worth a closer look.

I don’t consider that a minor role. A supplier serving several criminal cells can matter well beyond his own crew. If the government’s account is accurate, Luna was helping keep other people’s operations running.

His alias was already appearing in local violence reporting in May 2025. A source close to an investigation alleged that gunmen under Chino Payaso’s command had attacked Nuevo León’s Fuerza Civil police officers in upper Independencia. That account identified him by alias, without a full name or a court finding.

El Norte later reported that Luna had been detained in Nuevo León in 2025 over an attack on Fuerza Civil and released. The newspaper clipping names him and cites judicial file 9088/2025. This was an earlier release, before the federal arrest in July 2026.

The same clipping gives his reported defense: he claimed he was in Jalisco when the attack occurred. It also says case documents listed his residence in southern Monterrey. An address does not establish where he was that day. The complete order explaining his release remains missing.

Local reporting links him to Los Totoys. Reports place Luna above Jonathan “N,” known as El Totoy, while a May 2025 government presentation named Totoy as the group’s leader. Those accounts leave the hierarchy, and any changes in it, unsettled.

The reported cartel connection is to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG. Excélsior identified Luna as an alleged CJNG operator working for metropolitan Monterrey from Jalisco and Nayarit, attributing that information to the federal Security Cabinet. His exact position and Los Totoys’ formal relationship to CJNG remain unclear.

The operation that led to his July 2026 arrest took place in Bahía de Banderas, Nayarit, on Mexico’s Pacific coast—about 470 miles southwest of Monterrey in a straight line. Local reporting placed the searches at PortoVela, a residential development in Jarretaderas.

I’ve spent time in the Bahía de Banderas area of Nayarit. It’s part of a CJNG stronghold on the Pacific coast.

Residents and private-security personnel described restricted access, searches of several properties and a pickup being secured. Reporters were kept outside. Federal authorities reported seizing ammunition magazines, cartridges and documents.

On July 23, 2026, Mexico’s federal security secretary, Omar García Harfuch, announced the arrest of Óscar “N,” calling him a priority target in Nuevo León. Harfuch accused him of supplying weapons to criminal cells and being responsible for attacks against authorities, roadblocks and arson. He said the capture followed months of intelligence work, investigation and surveillance.

Harfuch called him a priority target. What happened once his case reached the courts?