Ex-cop to Mexico's most wanted drug lord: Who was El Mencho killed in US-backed raid
India Today
Notorious Mexican drug lord El Mencho, the USD 15-million-bounty cartel boss who built one of the world's most violent criminal empires, has been killed. Here is his criminal legacy.
Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, the notorious Mexican drug lord known as 'El Mencho' and leader of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), was killed in a military operation in western Mexico on Sunday. Oseguera was captured during the raid but died of injuries sustained in a firefight while being transported for treatment, following the operation that was carried out with support from US intelligence. His death marks one of the biggest blows to organised crime in the country in recent years.
El Mencho, was one of the most feared and powerful drug lords in modern Mexico, rising from rural poverty to lead a global criminal empire marked by extreme violence. He was a former police officer who turned to organised crime, and his death ended years of pursuit by both Mexican and US agencies. At the time of his death, the United States had placed a USD 15 million bounty on him, making him one of the most wanted fugitives in the world.
El Mencho was the founder and leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), an organisation that grew within a decade into one of the most powerful and militarised criminal groups globally. Under his command, the cartel built a vast network trafficking methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl across continents, particularly into the United States, where authorities blamed the group for contributing significantly to the opioid overdose crisis.
The cartel also diversified into fuel theft, extortion, kidnapping, forced labour, and money laundering, turning itself into a diversified criminal enterprise rather than a conventional drug trafficking group.
Born in 1966 in Mexico's Michoacan, a region long associated with drug cultivation, Oseguera grew up working in agricultural fields before migrating illegally to the United States in the 1980s. While in California, he became involved in the heroin trade and was eventually arrested, served prison time, and deported back to Mexico.
After returning, he briefly joined local law enforcement, gaining contacts and operational knowledge that would later aid his criminal career. He subsequently entered organised crime through the Milenio Cartel, a group linked to the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, where he rose through the ranks before flouting his own cartel.
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