Cop-turned-crime boss, Mexico’s Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera leaves bloody legacy

Nemesio Oseguera, 'El Mencho,' leaves a bloody legacy as a powerful crime boss and leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

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 (February 22, 2026). 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 $15 million bounty from the U.S. for information leading to his arrest or capture.

CJNG has been blamed for smuggling ‌vast quantities of drugs into the U.S., 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 ⁠U.S. and Mexican law enforcement gunning for him.”

Arguably Mexico’s most influential crime boss after captured kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, now in a U.S. prison, Oseguera diversified into rackets such as stolen fuel, forced labor 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. Oseguera was also known for evading capture in spectacular fashion. In May 2015, as Mexican forces closed in on him, his tipped-off henchmen shot down a military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade to give their boss time to escape.