- By Ajeet Kumar
- Mon, 23 Feb 2026 09:32 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
- El Mencho, CJNG leader, died in military raid.
- Ex-policeman rose to powerful cartel kingpin.
- Evaded capture despite $15M US bounty.
Mexican drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, commonly known as 'El Mencho,' infamous for the bloody trail of bodies he left behind in battles with government forces and rival gangs, died in a military raid on Sunday. An ex-police officer, Oseguera, 60, was the shadowy leader of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), an international criminal enterprise widely viewed as one of Mexico's most powerful.
Over a relatively short period of time, Oseguera masterminded the CJNG's emergence as a criminal empire rivaling his former allies in the Sinaloa Cartel. He managed to evade arrest for years despite a USD 15 million bounty from the US for information leading to his arrest or capture.
Who was Nemesio Oseguera?
Oseguera was born in 1966 in a poor village in the mountains of the rugged and notoriously lawless western state of Michoacan. There, cultivation of opium poppies and marijuana has competed with avocado production for decades.
How did Nemesio Oseguera turn a policeman to drug cartel?
As a boy, he worked the fields, and later went to seek his fortune in the US, where prosecutors said he got into the heroin trade. After a few years, he was arrested and served time in a US prison. He was deported back to Mexico, where he joined the police before entering the Milenio Cartel, a satellite of the Sinaloa Cartel. Eventually, he became a top enforcer after stints as a sicario, or cartel assassin.
After a failed attempt at taking over the Milenio Cartel, he struck out alone, declared war on Sinaloa, and founded the CJNG in alliance with a local gang of money launderers. The cartel is named for the western state of Jalisco, home to one of Mexico's largest cities, Guadalajara.
Low profile
Arguably Mexico's most influential crime boss after captured kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, now in a US prison, Oseguera diversified into rackets such as stolen fuel, forced labour and human trafficking. But unlike Guzman, who became a media celebrity, El Mencho preferred to remain in relative obscurity. He achieved notoriety for expletive-laden recordings leaked on social media in which he threatened enemies and officials.
Why was the US interested in killing the Mexican drug cartel?
CJNG has been blamed for smuggling vast quantities of drugs into the US, including the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which has been linked to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in recent years. "Apart from the heads of the Sinaloa cartel, 'El Mencho' has been the biggest prize for many, many years," said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a security expert and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
"And it’s really stunning, just like the heads of the Sinaloa cartel, how long he managed to evade US and Mexican law enforcement gunning for him.”
When El Mencho helped civilians during the coronavirus pandemic
For years, Oseguera paid off police to cover his back as he operated with near-total impunity inside Jalisco. He also sought political protection. "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," said Edgardo Buscaglia, an organised crime expert at Columbia University.
Noting El Mencho's ability to win public support, Buscaglia pointed to footage broadcast during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic of people lining up for CJNG-stamped food packages handed out by cartel gunmen, not government workers, to help cushion the economic blow of lockdowns. "Compared to the Mexican government," said Buscaglia, "he was the least bad option."
(With inputs from Reuters)