The violent history of

The leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes — also known as “El Mencho” — was murdered on sunday in a military operation in western Mexico.

Violent clashes broke out after the operation that led to the death of Oseguera Cervantes, during which six other people died. Two others were arrested, while Mexican authorities confiscated armored vehicles, rocket launchers and other weapons from alleged cartel members. Three members of the Mexican army were injured in the operation.

The violence that broke out on Sunday is part of a long pattern of clashes between Mexican authorities and the CJNG.

Oseguera Cervantes had been wanted for years by the United States, which alleged that he and the CJNG trafficked large quantities of fentanyl and other drugs into the United States. At the time of his death, the State Department was offering a $15,000,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

Who is Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes?

Originally born in Mexico, Oseguera Cervantes entered the United States illegally in the 1980s and lived in California for years. He was eventually arrested on drug charges and deported back to Mexicobut returned to the United States illegally.

Oseguera Cervantes was arrested again on drug charges in 1992 and, after serving three years in prison and being released on parole, was deported to Mexico for a second time, according to Rolling Stone.

Returning to Mexico, he began his rise to the top of one of the most powerful cartels in the country.

The violent history of El Mencho and the CJNG in Mexico

After splitting from the Milenio Cartel, Oseguera Cervantes and others formed the CJNG around 2011, according to the State Department.

“The CJNG is heavily involved in the manufacturing, trafficking, and distribution of illicit drugs, such as fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine, in addition to maintaining a vast money laundering operation,” according to the DEA.

In 2019, the DEA estimated that CJNG was responsible for at least a third of all drugs entering the United States by air and sea.

Former DEA agent Matthew Donahue told News themezone at the time that Oseguera Cervantes was “the number one priority for the DEA and, frankly, for federal authorities in the United States.”

President Trump, in February of last year, signed an executive order designating the CJNG and seven other cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Then in May, federal prosecutors used that designation to charge María Del Rosario Navarro Sánchez, 39, for allegedly providing grenades to the CJNG.

“He has a tremendous amount of weapons, RPGs, .50 caliber weapons. He basically has his own SWAT teams,” Donahue said.

Those weapons have been used to assert, expand and maintain cartel control across the country in violent and often audacious ways.

In 2020, the cartel attempted to assassinate Mexico City Police Chief Omar García Harfuch, who now serves as Mexico’s Secretary of Security and Civil Protection. While traveling to a meeting in an armored truck, García was attacked by CJNG members carrying high-powered rifles, grenades and bulletproof vests, according to Mexico News Daily. He survived, but two of his bodyguards and an uninvolved woman were killed.

U.S. prosecutors have also alleged that in 2015, the cartel shot down a Mexican military helicopter with an RPG during a Mexican campaign to attack cartels in Jalisco.

CJNG violence was also often more selective.

Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez-Ochoa, former high-ranking leader of the cartel, is alleged to have He kidnapped two members of the Mexican Navy. in 2021 in an effort to free El Mencho’s wife after she herself was arrested by Mexican authorities. According to prosecutors, El Mencho told people that he killed Gutiérrez-Ochoa for lying, but Gutiérrez-Ochoa actually faked his death and fled from Mexico to Riverside, California. Oseguera Cervantes’ wife was finally released from prison in February 2025.

The CJNG has been accused of using fake job advertisements in an attempt to attract new members and then force unsuspecting applicants to join the cartel. It is alleged that the cartel tortured or killed those who tried to resist or escape. In March, charred bones, shoes and clothing They were found by a group of people searching for missing relatives at what is believed to be a CJNG training camp.

El Mencho’s son, Rubén Oseguera — known as “El Menchito” — He was sentenced in March 2025 to life in prison after being convicted in the United States on drug and weapons charges.

“El Menchito led the Jalisco Cartel’s efforts to use murder, kidnapping, and torture to turn the Cartel into a self-proclaimed ’empire’ by manufacturing fentanyl and flooding the United States with massive quantities of lethal drugs,” former US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in September 2024.

Before his death, Oseguera Cervantes had also been indicted in the United States several times. His most recent indictment came in April 2022, when he was charged with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl for importation into the United States and use of a firearm during and in connection with drug trafficking crimes, according to the State Department.