The drug kingpin killed by Mexican special forces on Sunday headed a cartel notorious for its aggression and military-grade weaponry.
Violence erupts after Mexican security forces kill drug cartel boss ‘El Mencho’
The drug lord known as El Mencho, who was killed on Sunday by Mexican special forces, co-founded and led one of Mexico’s most formidable criminal organisations: the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
Although less internationally notorious than the Sinaloa Cartel once headed by the now-imprisoned Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the CJNG has become a household name in Mexico for its extreme violence and extensive military-style arsenal.
Operating out of the western state of Jalisco, the cartel has built a reputation as one of the most aggressive groups in the country, frequently targeting security forces — even attacking military helicopters. It has been a pioneer in using drones to drop explosives and in planting landmines. A 2015 operation to capture El Mencho — whose real name was Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, a 59-year-old former police officer — ended disastrously when cartel gunmen shot down an army helicopter with a rocket launcher.
In 2020, the group staged a brazen assassination attempt in central Mexico City against the capital’s then police chief, now federal security secretary, using grenades and high-powered rifles.
Security analyst Eduardo Guerrero said in 2021 that authorities on both sides of the US-Mexico border viewed the CJNG as a national security threat. He noted the cartel’s vast financial resources, advanced weaponry, paramilitary-style units and fleet of vehicles, warning that even a contingent of 50 operatives could overwhelm local police forces in small and mid-sized cities.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has described the CJNG as being on par with the Sinaloa Cartel, with operations spanning all 50 US states. It is a major supplier of cocaine to the US and generates billions of dollars from fentanyl and methamphetamine production. Meanwhile, the Sinaloa Cartel has been weakened by internal conflict following the detention of its leaders, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Guzmán, both now in US custody.
Originally from Aguililla in the neighbouring state of Michoacán, El Mencho had been deeply involved in drug trafficking since the 1990s. As a young man, he migrated to the United States, where he was convicted in 1994 in federal court in Northern California for conspiracy to distribute heroin and served nearly three years in prison.
After serving his sentence in the United States, El Mencho returned to Mexico and resumed drug trafficking alongside the crime boss Ignacio Coronel Villareal, known as “Nacho Coronel.” Following Coronel’s death, El Mencho and Erik Valencia Salazar, alias “El 85,” founded the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) around 2007.
At first, the group operated under the umbrella of the Sinaloa Cartel, but the alliance eventually fractured. For years since, the two cartels have fought violent battles for control of territory across Mexico.
One underworld tale claims the split stemmed from a seemingly trivial incident at a gathering in eastern Guadalajara, where a trafficker allegedly spilled a glass of hibiscus tea on a rival. The minor altercation is said to have triggered a chain reaction of betrayals, gunfights and massacres.
Unlike Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán — who once enlisted Sean Penn in an effort to dramatize his life story — El Mencho largely avoided the spotlight. Very few photographs of him are publicly available.
Beginning in 2017, he was indicted multiple times in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The latest superseding indictment, filed on 5 April 2022, accused him of conspiring to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl for illegal importation into the United States, as well as using firearms in connection with drug trafficking crimes. He was also charged under the Drug Kingpin Enforcement Act for leading a continuing criminal enterprise.
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