Mexico’s military killed Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho”, in a US-backed operation in Jalisco, delivering one of the most significant blows to organized crime in years and triggering a wave of retaliatory violence across the country.
Oseguera, 59, died after being injured during a Mexican special forces operation in the town of Tapalpa, in Jalisco state, according to Mexico’s defense ministry. His body was flown to Mexico City under heavy guard.
US intelligence contributed to the raid, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirming Washington’s support. She said the Trump administration “commends and thanks the Mexican military for their cooperation and successful execution of this operation.”
Nationwide retaliation
Within hours of reports of his death, cartel gunmen set vehicles ablaze and blockaded highways in nearly a dozen states. Businesses were torched, flights were suspended in the Pacific resort of Puerto Vallarta, and schools canceled classes in multiple regions. Residents in Guadalajara, Jalisco’s capital and Mexico’s second-largest city, locked themselves indoors as smoke rose over parts of the city.
No civilian deaths were immediately reported.
The eruption of violence underscored the risks facing President Claudia Sheinbaum as she intensifies operations against drug cartels amid pressure from Washington over fentanyl trafficking.
A high-profile blow
The killing marks Mexico’s most consequential strike against organised crime since the recapture of Joaquín Guzmán a decade ago. Leaders of the rival Sinaloa Cartel, including Guzmán and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, were captured alive in previous operations and are now in US custody.
Oseguera founded CJNG around 2009 after rising through Mexico’s criminal underworld. A former police officer from Michoacan, he had earlier served three years in a US prison on heroin trafficking charges in the 1990s.
Under his leadership, CJNG became Mexico’s fastest-growing and most aggressive cartel, trafficking cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl to the United States, while expanding into fuel theft, extortion, human smuggling and financial crimes. The group gained notoriety for downing a military helicopter in 2015 and pioneering the use of drones and improvised explosive devices in attacks.
The US State Department had offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
US reaction
US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau called Oseguera’s killing a “great development” for the US, Mexico and Latin America.
Landau also wrote on X: “The good guys are stronger than the bad guys. Congratulations to the forces of law and order in the great Mexican nation.”
Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the DEA, said Mexico had sent “a strong message to Donald Trump's administration that they are fighting aggressively and effectively” against the most powerful cartels. He added that “the majority of the information came from the Mexican armed forces and all credit goes to Mexico.”
President Donald Trump has previously warned that “the cartels are running Mexico,” and said “we are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels.”
Sheinbaum has pledged closer cooperation with the US while insisting Mexico’s sovereignty will be respected and rejecting any unilateral US military action on Mexican soil. She said security officials would provide further details on the operation.
Power vacuum and risks ahead
Security analysts warned that Oseguera’s death could fracture CJNG and spark prolonged internal conflict.
“There will definitely be skirmishes between the various factions, and these spasms of violence could last for years,” said Carlos Olivo, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration assistant special agent in charge and an expert in CJNG.
Vigil described Oseguera as the central authority within the organization: “El Mencho controlled everything, he was like a country's dictator.”
He urged Mexico to seize the moment to launch “an effective frontal assault based on intelligence.”
“This is a big opportunity for Mexico and the United States if they work together,” he said.
Security analyst David Saucedo cautioned that if Oseguera’s relatives take control, violence could persist. A more extreme scenario, he warned, would be a turn toward indiscriminate attacks, with the cartel deciding to “launch narcoterrorism attacks ... and generate a scenario similar to what Colombia lived in the 1990s,” including “car bombs, assassinations and attacks on aircraft.”
