Who was ‘El Mencho’ and what’s next for Mexico’s fastest-growing cartel?
The most-wanted cartel boss in Mexico, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes known as El Mencho, was killed Sunday after a government operation to capture him. The longtime leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel died from injuries during a mission in Tapalpa, a town of about 20,000 in the western coastal state of Jalisco where his gang was based.
He passed away while in transport to Mexico City for medical attention. His death incited violence across the country, with armed groups blocking roads and setting fire to supermarkets, banks, and vehicles in one of the most widespread eruptions of turmoil in recent history.The killing set off swift violence, with Jalisco suspending public transportation and warning hotels to keep guests inside, and Nayarit canceling classes Monday.Oseguera Cervantes, better known as “El Mencho,” was a former police officer and Mexico’s most wanted man. The 59-year-old from Michoacan had ties to organized crime for at least three decades. In 1994, he was tried for trafficking heroin in the US and served three years in prison. Back in Mexico, he rose quickly through the drug underworld. Around 2009, he founded the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which became Mexico’s fastest-growing criminal organisation. It moved cocaine, methamphetamines, fentanyl, and migrants to the United States.Oseguera faced multiple US indictments, with a $15 million reward for his arrest. The Trump administration designated his cartel and others foreign terrorist organisations a year ago. El Mencho led the cartel for years, controlling everything like a country’s dictator, as one observer noted.
What is the Jalisco New Generation Cartel?
A breakaway gang that split from Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel around 2009 or 2010, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG, grew to become one of Mexico’s dominant drug trafficking organizations and the strongest, most aggressive competitor to Sinaloa. It expanded rapidly across Mexico, with a presence in at least 21 of 32 states and activity in almost all US states, plus global reach. Based mainly in the west, including the Tierra Caliente region, strongholds in Jalisco, Nayarit, and Colima, its assets exceed $20 billion.Made up of 15,000 to 20,000 members, it takes in billions annually from drug trafficking, extortion, fuel theft, kidnapping, illegal logging, mining, and migrant smuggling. It’s a main distributor of synthetic drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl on the continent, with key roles in US, Europe, and Asia markets. The cartel innovates in violence using drones and improvised explosive devices. It remains the most aggressive in Mexico, per Stratfor, fueling violence in Tijuana, Juarez, Guanajuato, and Mexico City. Attacks include downing an army helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade, killing dozens of state officials, hanging victims’ bodies from bridges, public executions publicized on social media, and assassinations of politicians, judges, and law enforcement. Its efforts to expand control drive persistent violence.The group recruited aggressively online and earned a reputation for brazen attacks on security forces, including downing a military helicopter in Jalisco in 2015 and attempting to assassinate Mexico City Police Chief Omar García Harfuch, now Mexico’s federal security secretary.
What’s next?
Under President Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico launched its most aggressive offensive against cartels in over a decade. El Mencho’s death could ease pressure from US President Donald Trump, who threatened strikes.Turmoil’s spread depends on succession. It’s unclear who will succeed Oseguera or if anyone can hold the 21-state, global organisation together. His absence could slow growth and weaken it against Sinaloa, which faces its own struggles between El Chapo’s sons and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada’s faction in US custody.If relatives take control, Sunday’s violence could continue, per security analyst David Saucedo. Others might turn the page. The greatest fear is indiscriminate narcoterrorism like Colombia’s 1990s—car bombs, assassinations, and aircraft attacks against the government. Without clear succession, fragmentation could spark new bloodshed, according to Brookings expert Vanda Felbab-Brown, as reported by the New York Times.
