Mexican cartel leader's son sentenced to life in prison for role in major drug trafficking plot

Rubén Oseguera, son of a Mexican cartel boss, sentenced to life for leading a violent drug trafficking organization.

The son of a Mexican drug cartel boss has been sentenced to life in prison for helping his father run one of the country's largest and most violent narcotics trafficking organizations.

Rubén Oseguera, known as El Menchito, is the son of fugitive Jalisco New Generation cartel boss Nemesio Oseguera. The son served as the CJNG cartel's second-in-command for seven years before his extradition to the U.S. in February 2020.

The younger Oseguera faced a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum of 40 years in prison when US District Judge Beryl Howell sentenced him in Washington, DC. One of the 35-year-old Oseguera's defense attorneys asked for a 40-year prison sentence, noting his client was only 14 when he was recruited to join his family's drug trafficking operation.

“You weren't a child when you were committing all these crimes, and you won't be sentenced as a child here,” the judge told Oseguera.

Oseguera ordered the killings of at least 100 people, personally killed at least six people and ordered subordinates to shoot down a Mexican military helicopter, killing at least nine people, in May 2015, according to prosecutors.

“This defendant helped build Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion into a brutal terrorist organization that pumps poison onto our streets and commits horrific acts of violence,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

Judge Howell also ordered Oseguera to forfeit over $6 billion in proceeds from the cartel's drug trafficking.