El Mencho: Who Was the Leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and What Comes Next?

Cartel violence erupted across Mexico this weekend after the Mexican military killed the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Officials closed schools in multiple states and urged residents to stay indoors to avoid cartel violence. Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, widely known as “El Mencho,” led the fastest-growing organized criminal entities in Mexico. The cartel grew from a splinter group in 2009 and rebranded in 2012. Here’s what we know about the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and its leader and founder, El Mencho.

El Mencho is dead and members of his cartel retaliated

The Mexican military carried out one of the most effective attacks against cartel violence on Sunday. Members of the Mexican military shot the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel during a shootout on Saturday, Feb. 22. He died while being transported to Mexico City, according to officials. Officials confirmed his death on Sunday, Feb. 23. Violence erupted in 20 of Mexico’s 31 states, according to The Guardian.

Mexican newspaper La Jornada reports that 26 people have been killed so far. Most of the deaths have been military personnel fighting against the cartel. Reports indicate that cartel members and troops killed a pregnant civilian in the crossfire.

The Mexican government carried out the mission using intel provided by the United States government. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that the goal of the mission was to capture El Mencho alive, but they responded to a violent counterattack.

Oseguera Cervantes got his start in organized crime with the Milenio Cartel

El Mencho had several run-ins with the law in California in the 1980s and 1990s. Authorities arrested and deported him to Mexico twice while he lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for his alleged connections to meth production and distribution. Each time authorities deported him, he crossed back into the United States and returned to his life of crime.

In 1992, he was arrested on federal drug charges and spent three years in a federal prison before being deported to Mexico again. This time, El Mencho stayed in Mexico and got involved with the Milenio Cartel as a member of its assassin squad.

The Milenio Cartel suffered two critical blows that brought an end to the cartel. First, in 2003, a rival cartel, Los Zetas, used the arrest of drug lord Armando Valencia Cornelio to attack. Los Zetas, backed by the Gulf Cartel, forced the Valencia family into exile in Jalisco.

Then, in 2009, authorities arrested two top-ranking members of the Milenio Cartel, causing a splintering among members. El Mencho tried to become the new leader, but the division internally was too great for him to overcome.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel was born from the Milenio Cartel breaking up

Originally, the sect that El Mencho led was called Los Matazetas and had a strong focus on exacting revenge on Los Zetas. The other side of the Milenio Cartel was renamed as La Resistencia. The two factions warred over who would control the drug-running territory in Jalisco. Los Matazetas implemented a publicity attack as well as physical attacks on La Resistencia that eventually ended the rival cartel, giving Los Matazetas control of the territory. In 2012, they rebranded as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Since then, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel has been a powerful criminal network covering 11 states. The cartel operates in Jalisco, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Chiapas, Tlaxcala, Querétaro, and Michoacán. Under the leadership of El Mencho, the cartel expanded its territory and became one of the biggest drug-running entities in rivalry with the Sinaloa Cartel.

What’s next?

There is a lot of speculation and concern about what comes next. The death of any leader in a criminal enterprise leaves a power vacuum that people are desperate to fill. People are claiming that it is likely that Abraham Jesús Ambriz Cano, known as “El Yogurt,” could become the next leader of the cartel.

It isn’t certain what will happen. The sudden killing of El Mencho will likely send the Jalisco New Generation Cartel into chaos as the dust settles. Only time will tell what is next for the cartel, the Mexican government’s response, and the people living in the cartel’s territory.