Former Police Officer Turned Drug Lord ‘El Mencho’ Killed in Military Operation

Nemesio Oseguera, known as 'El Mencho,' was killed in a Mexican military raid Sunday, ending the reign of one of the world's most wanted drug kingpins. The 60-year-old former police officer led the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel and had a $15 million U.S. bounty on his head.

A former law enforcement officer who became one of Mexico’s most notorious drug kingpins met his end during a military operation on Sunday. Nemesio Oseguera, better known by his alias ‘El Mencho,’ was killed at age 60 after years of evading capture despite carrying a $15 million U.S. bounty.

The deceased crime boss had commanded the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a criminal organization that security experts consider among Mexico’s most formidable drug trafficking networks. His organization gained infamy for flooding American streets with deadly substances, particularly fentanyl, contributing to countless overdose fatalities across the United States.

Vanda Felbab-Brown, who studies security issues at the Brookings Institution, emphasized Oseguera’s significance in the criminal underworld. “Apart from the heads of the Sinaloa cartel, ‘El Mencho’ has been the biggest prize for many, many years,” she stated. “And it’s really stunning, just like the heads of the Sinaloa cartel, how long he managed to evade U.S. and Mexican law enforcement gunning for him.”

Following the imprisonment of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, many viewed Oseguera as Mexico’s most powerful crime figure. However, unlike Guzman’s media-friendly persona, El Mencho maintained a low profile, becoming known primarily through profanity-filled audio messages where he issued threats against rivals and government officials.

His criminal enterprise extended far beyond drug trafficking, encompassing fuel theft, human trafficking, and forced labor operations. The cartel’s brutal enforcement methods included beheadings and other violent intimidation tactics designed to terrorize opponents.

One particularly audacious escape attempt occurred in May 2015, when his associates used rocket-propelled grenades to down a military helicopter, allowing their leader to flee advancing Mexican forces. His victims were rarely afforded such dramatic rescues.

The cartel’s violence reached staggering levels during a six-week span in 2015, when they executed 24 police officers in western Mexico as a message to authorities. In 2020, they attempted to assassinate Omar Garcia Harfuch, then Mexico City’s police chief and now the nation’s security minister who helped coordinate Sunday’s fatal operation. Two bodyguards died in that attack, though Harfuch survived.

Oseguera’s journey from poverty to criminal prominence began in 1966 in an impoverished mountain village in Michoacan state, a region where illegal drug cultivation has long competed with legitimate avocado farming. After working in agricultural fields as a youth, he migrated to the United States seeking better opportunities but instead entered the heroin trade.

Following his arrest and imprisonment in America, he was sent back to Mexico, where he initially joined law enforcement before transitioning to the Milenio Cartel, which operated under the Sinaloa Cartel’s umbrella. He climbed the criminal hierarchy, serving as an assassin and enforcer before attempting unsuccessfully to seize control of the Milenio organization.

After that failed takeover, he established his own criminal empire, declaring war against his former Sinaloa allies and creating the CJNG through partnerships with local money laundering networks. The organization took its name from Jalisco state, which includes the major city of Guadalajara.

His cartel combined traditional Sinaloa trafficking methods and community engagement with the extreme violence characteristic of the Zetas Cartel, a group known for military-style operations and diversification into kidnapping and extortion.

Corruption played a crucial role in Oseguera’s success, as he systematically bribed law enforcement and sought political protection throughout Jalisco state. Columbia University organized crime researcher Edgardo Buscaglia noted the cartel’s political influence, explaining that “El Mencho’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel was one of the biggest buyers of politicians and political campaigns, which has given it an enormous social base.”

Buscaglia highlighted how the organization cultivated public support, particularly during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic when cartel members distributed food packages bearing CJNG logos to struggling families during lockdowns. “Compared to the Mexican government,” Buscaglia observed, “he was the least bad option.”