MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican military killed the chief of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho,” on Sunday, decapitating what had turn out to be Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel and thrusting swaths of the nation into chaos.
The drug lord was the Mexican authorities’s largest prize but to point out the Trump administration in its efforts to crack down on the cartels, and his dying was met with a forceful response from the cartel, recognized by its Spanish initials CJNG.
Cars burned out by cartel members blocked roads in practically a dozen Mexican states and left smoke billowing into the air. Jalisco’s capital, Guadalajara, was was a ghost city Sunday night time as civilians hunkered down. College was canceled Monday in a number of states.
Oseguera Cervantes was wounded in an operation to seize him Sunday in Tapalpa, Jalisco, a couple of two-hour drive southwest of Guadalajara and he died whereas being flown to Mexico Metropolis, the Protection Division stated in an announcement. The state is the bottom of the cartel recognized for trafficking big portions of fentanyl and different medication to america.
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Cartel a serious fentanyl trafficker
In the course of the operation, troops got here underneath fireplace and killed 4 folks on the location. Three extra folks, together with Oseguera Cervantes, had been wounded and later died, the assertion stated. Two others had been arrested and armored automobiles, rocket launchers and different arms had been seized. Three members of the armed forces had been wounded and receiving medical therapy.
A Jalisco state official who requested anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk publicly stated a member of the Nationwide Guard died in Tapalpa in the course of the operation, six different Nationwide Guard members died in Zapopan beside Guadalajara, a jail guard was killed at a lockup in Puerto Vallarta when prisoners rioted, and an agent from the Jalisco state prosecutor’s workplace was killed in Guadalajara. Particulars weren’t instantly accessible.
White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated through X that the U.S. authorities supplied intelligence assist for the operation. “‘El Mencho’ was a prime goal for the Mexican and United States authorities as one of many prime traffickers of fentanyl into our homeland,” she wrote. She recommended Mexico’s navy for its work.
“Ever since President (Claudia) Sheinbaum has been in energy, the military has been far more confrontational, combative in opposition to prison teams in Mexico,” stated David Mora, analyst for Worldwide Disaster Group in Mexico. “That is signaling to the U.S. that if we maintain cooperating, sharing intelligence, Mexico can do it, we don’t want U.S. troops on Mexican soil.”
Roadblocks and burning automobiles
The killing of the drug lord set off a number of hours of roadblocks with burning automobiles, techniques generally utilized by the cartels to dam navy operations. Movies circulating on social media confirmed smoke billowing over the vacationer metropolis of Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco, and other people sprinting via the airport of the state’s capital in panic.
Air Canada introduced it was suspending flights to Puerto Vallarta “as a consequence of an ongoing safety scenario” and suggested clients to not go to their airport. Plenty of Mexican and worldwide airways additionally canceled flights.
In Guadalajara, burning automobiles blocked roads and companies shuttered simply months earlier than Mexico’s second-largest metropolis is scheduled to host matches during this summer’s soccer World Cup.
The U.S. State Division warned U.S. residents in Jalisco, Tamaulipas, Michoacan, Guerrero and Nuevo Leon states to stay in secure locations because of the safety operations. Canada’s embassy in Mexico warned its residents in Puerto Vallarta to shelter in place and usually to maintain a low profile in Jalisco.
Jalisco Gov. Pablo Lemus advised residents to remain at house, suspended public transportation and stated that the state was “residing via crucial hours.”
US had supplied as much as $15 million for his seize
The U.S. State Division had supplied a reward of as much as $15 million for info resulting in the arrest of El Mencho. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is without doubt one of the strongest and quickest rising prison organizations in Mexico and commenced working round 2009.
In February 2025, the Trump administration designated the cartel as a international terrorist group.
Sheinbaum has criticized the “kingpin” technique of earlier administrations that took out cartel leaders solely to set off explosions of violence as cartels fractured. Whereas she has remained well-liked in Mexico, safety is a persistent concern and since U.S. President Donald Trump took workplace a 12 months in the past, she has been underneath great stress to point out outcomes in opposition to drug trafficking.
On Sunday, Sheinbaum applauded Mexican safety forces and known as for calm in a publish on X.
Generally known as an aggressive cartel
The Jalisco cartel has been probably the most aggressive cartels in its assaults on the navy — together with on helicopters — and is a pioneer in launching explosives from drones and installing mines. In 2020, it carried out a spectacular assassination try with grenades and high-powered rifles within the coronary heart of Mexico Metropolis in opposition to the then head of the capital’s police pressure and now federal safety secretary.
The DEA considers the cartel to be as highly effective because the Sinaloa cartel, considered one of Mexico’s most notorious prison teams, with a presence in all 50 U.S. states. It is without doubt one of the foremost suppliers of cocaine to the U.S. market and, just like the Sinaloa cartel, earns billions from the manufacturing of fentanyl and methamphetamines. Sinaloa, nonetheless, has been weakened by infighting after the lack of its leaders Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, each in U.S. custody.
Oseguera Cervantes, 59, was initially from Aguililla within the neighboring state of Michoacan. He had been considerably concerned in drug trafficking actions because the Nineteen Nineties. When he was youthful, he migrated to the U.S. the place he was convicted of conspiracy to distribute heroin within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of California in 1994 and served practically three years in jail.
Following his launch from custody, Oseguera Cervantes returned to Mexico and reengaged in drug trafficking exercise with drug lord Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, alias “Nacho Coronel.” After Villarreal’s dying, Oseguera Cervantes and Erik Valencia Salazar, alias “El 85,” created the Jalisco New Era Cartel round 2007.
Initially, they labored for the Sinaloa Cartel, however ultimately break up and for years the 2 cartels have battled for territory throughout Mexico.
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Indicted a number of instances in america
Since 2017, Oseguera Cervantes has been indicted a number of instances in america District Courtroom for the District of Columbia.
The newest superseding indictment, filed on April 5, 2022, expenses Oseguera Cervantes with conspiracy and distribution of managed substances (methamphetamine, cocaine, and fentanyl) for the aim of unlawful importation into america and use of firearms throughout and in reference to drug trafficking offenses. Oseguera Cervantes can be charged underneath the Drug Kingpin Enforcement Act for steering a unbroken prison enterprise.
Final 12 months, folks looking for missing relatives founds piles of footwear and different clothes, in addition to bone fragments at what authorities later stated was a Jalisco cartel recruitment and training site.
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