One of Mexico’s most notorious cartel bosses, known as “El Mencho,” was killed Sunday in a military operation, the Mexican government said.
Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes led the Jalisco New Generation cartel for 15 years, according to Mexican authorities. He had been one of the country’s top targets ever since his cartel shot down a military helicopter in 2015, killing six soldiers.
Sunday’s army operation took place in the cartel’s home state of Jalisco, but further details have not been released. Jalisco includes Mexico’s second-largest city, Guadalajara, and the tourist town of Puerto Vallarta.
Oseguera was estimated to be 60 years old. The U.S. government had offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest. Like many cartel leaders, he was rarely photographed and operated almost exclusively in the shadows.
DEA
Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. (DEA)
But the Jalisco New Generation cartel, which splintered from the Sinaloa cartel in 2009, became one of the nation’s most fearsome criminal organizations under Oseguera’s leadership. Though best known for drug trafficking, the group was involved in a variety of black market operations and enforced its claims through exaggerated and provocative acts of violence.
In addition to the 2015 rocket-propelled grenade attack, the cartel carried out an assassination attempt in 2020 in Mexico City against Omar Garcia Harfuch, then the Mexico City police chief and now the country’s top federal security official. Garcia survived the attack, in which the cartel used grenades and high-powered rifles.
Last year, community groups located a ranch with hundreds of burned bone fragments and high concentrations of ash in Jalisco state. Investigators said it was likely used by the cartel as a training ground, with recruits who failed to measure up being killed and cremated on the site.
During and after Sunday’s operation, dozens of vehicles were set on fire to block streets in Jalisco, a common cartel tactic to counter Mexican military operations. The state’s governor, Pablo Lemus Navarro, said he was directing all security forces to prevent cartel violence.
With News Wire Services
