Sunday’s killing of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes via the Mexican military marks the largest blow to the rustic’s drug cartels in years, sparking a wave of violent retaliation.
Oseguera Cervantes, higher referred to as “El Mencho,” led the tough and fatal Jalisco New Era Cartel, which has earned a name for brazen assaults in opposition to Mexican safety forces whilst setting up itself as a best distributor of cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl.
“He used to be brutal,” stated Alejandro Garcia Magos, an assistant professor on the College of Toronto who research Mexican politics, who referred to as Oseguera Cervantes’ loss of life “excellent information.”
Oseguera Cervantes used to be dealing with more than one indictments in america, and the U.S. State Division had presented a US$15 million praise for info resulting in his arrest. Canada and the U.S. designated his cartel and others overseas terrorist organizations a yr in the past.
Right here’s what to find out about “El Mencho” and the cartel he shaped and led till his loss of life.
A long felony historical past
Born in rural Michoacán in western Mexico in 1966, Oseguera Cervantes grew up in a deficient circle of relatives prior to he reportedly illegally immigrated to the U.S. within the Eighties.
He settled within the San Francisco Bay Space, the place he used to be arrested more than one instances on firearms and drug fees and deported again to Mexico, however controlled to re-enter the U.S.
A Univision profile of Oseguera Cervantes claims he smuggled medication from Mexico into the U.S. more than one instances, crossing the border beneath quite a lot of aliases.
In 1992, after settling in California as soon as once more, Oseguera Cervantes and his brother Abraham have been arrested on federal fees in Sacramento, 3 weeks after a heroin care for undercover cops.
According to Rolling Stone, Oseguera Cervantes pleaded in charge as a way to keep away from a lifestyles sentence for Abraham, who had acted as the vendor whilst “El Mencho” served as lookout.
Oseguera Cervantes used to be sentenced to 5 years in jail however used to be launched on parole after 3 years, and then he used to be deported again to Mexico.
Upon his go back, “El Mencho” become a Jalisco state police officer prior to becoming a member of the Milenio Cartel. He quickly married Rosalinda González Valencia, whose circle of relatives led the cartel.
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Oseguera Cervantes first served in an murderer squad that secure Milenio’s leaders and progressively rose during the cartel’s ranks to change into a best lieutenant throughout a time when Milenio successfully merged with the tough Sinaloa Cartel.
“El Mencho” labored intently with Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel, an best friend of Sinaloa Cartel chief Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, to lend a hand implement Sinaloa’s keep an eye on of drug trafficking thru Jalisco state and its capital town of Guadalajara.
In a span of months between 2009 and 2010, Coronel used to be killed in a shootout with Mexican infantrymen and Milenio’s best chief, Óscar Orlando Nava Valencia (“El Lobo”), used to be captured.
Out of the management vacuum, the Milenio Cartel fractured into two warring teams — considered one of them led via “El Mencho,” which received the warfare over keep an eye on of the Jalisco drug business and altered its title to Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, or CJNG.
CJNG continuously expanded its keep an eye on over drug trafficking throughout Jalisco and into different neighbouring states “with the political coverage of governors” who have been corrupted, stated Edgardo Buscaglia, a senior student in regulation and economics at Columbia College.
“That’s large, if in case you have the political coverage of 9 governors — that lets you have interaction in native monopolies to make some huge cash thru no longer simply medication, no longer simply human trafficking, no longer simply migrant trafficking, however you get started being profitable during the state, thru public procurement,” he stated.
“So the Jalisco cartel used to be very a lot merged with the Jalisco state.”
Days prior to Oseguera Cervantes used to be killed, the U.S. government accused him and CJNG of a timeshare fraud scheme in Puerto Vallarta as an extra illicit earnings movement for the cartel.
CJNG’s assets have been estimated to be round US$20 billion via state terrorism researchers on the College of Maryland.
González Valencia, “El Mencho’s” spouse, who used to be referred to as “Los angeles Jefa,” has led the cartel’s monetary and cash laundering operations, which incorporated actual property and comfort lodge homes.
“There isn’t a unmarried state in Mexico that doesn’t have the presence of both the Jalisco cartel or the Sinaloa Cartel in some form or shape, be that when it comes to boots at the floor or the monetary constructions of those organizations,” stated Deborah Bonello, the managing editor of InSight Crime, an arranged crime assume tank that has printed a number of profiles and analyses of “El Mencho” and CJNG.
“El Mencho” successfully solidified his place as Mexico’s new best drug lord in 2016, after the general seize of “El Chapo” Guzman, when CKPG abducted two of Guzman’s sons whilst they have been vacationing in Puerto Vallarta. The 2 males have been sooner or later freed after a negotiation with Guzman that concerned cost to CKPG in money and medicine.
Oseguera Cervantes kept away from seize via Mexican forces more than one instances prior to his loss of life on Sunday and maintained a particularly low profile.
His cartel, in the meantime, evolved a name for brazen violence in opposition to Mexican government and politicians, together with the 2013 homicide of Jalisco tourism secretary Jesús Gallegos Álvarez, which used to be believed to were ordered via “El Mencho.”
In 2015, CJNG forces ambushed a police convoy travelling from Puerto Vallarta to Guadalajara, killing 15 officials. A couple of weeks later, throughout a retaliatory operation via Mexico’s army on “El Mencho’s” suspected compound, cartel infantrymen shot down an army helicopter, killing 9 Mexican military and police officers.
The cartel adopted that up via unleashing a wave of violence throughout Jalisco state very similar to the present unrest.
CJNG used to be additionally blamed for the tried assassination in 2020 of Mexico Town Police Leader Omar García Harfuch, who’s now Mexico’s federal safety secretary.
The Canadian executive says CJNG “is understood for his or her cutting edge use of rigging drones to drop explosives, a violent tactic followed from rebel teams.”
The cartel has extensively utilized public executions and kidnappings in territories it controls to instill terror in communities, the Canadian terrorism list for CJNG says.
Toronto police seized 835 kilograms of cocaine connected to CJNG in January 2025, marking the biggest drug seizure within the town’s historical past.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced in September last year it had seized 77,000 kilograms of substances and over one million counterfeit drugs throughout 5 days of operations within the U.S. and Mexico.
With Oseguera Cervantes now useless, it is still observed whether or not CJNG may also be totally taken down.
“Until the political coverage of the Jalisco cartel ends, the loss of life of ‘El Mencho’ will imply not anything,” Buscaglia stated.
—With information from International’s Touria Izri, Uday Rana and Jackson Proskow
