El Mencho
Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known across Mexico as El Mencho, led the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, a criminal group based in the western state of Jalisco. At the time of his death he was the most wanted person in Mexico and among the most wanted in the United States. On the 22nd of February 2026, the Mexican military carried out an operation in Tapalpa, Jalisco, with help from United States intelligence. The raid set off a wave of reprisals by the cartel. Road blockades, burning vehicles, and gun battles followed, and at least 25 National Guard members were killed. How did a boy from an avocado-growing family in Michoacán become the target of that operation? What did he build, and how did he stay out of reach for so long? And what did his family, his rivals, and two governments do in the years of the chase?
Culotitlán, a rural community in Aguililla, Michoacán, is where he was born on the 17th of July 1966. His family was poor and grew avocados. He left primary school in fifth grade to work in the fields. Records disagree on his first name. Some give Rubén, some give Nemesio, and some sources say he was born Rubén and switched to Nemesio in memory of his godfather. The nickname Mencho comes from Nemesio. Another one, the Lord of the Roosters, was said to come from his love of cockfighting. He had five brothers: Juan, Miguel, Antonio, Marín, and Abraham.
At the age of 14 he began guarding marijuana plantations. A few years later he wanted a better life and crossed illegally into California in the 1980s. To hide who he was, he used a shifting set of names, including Rubén Ávila, José López Prieto, Miguel Valadez, Carlos Hernández Mendoza, and Roberto Salgado.
In 1986 he was living in the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco police arrested him at 19 for stealing property and carrying a loaded gun. Two months later his first child was born. Border entry records show he crossed between the United States and Mexico several times in the late 1980s under other aliases. The DEA and Mexican investigators believe he got into methamphetamine production and sales in Redwood City during these years. His partner there, they say, was his brother-in-law Abigael González Valencia, alias El Cuini.
In 1989 he was arrested again in San Francisco, this time for selling narcotics. He was deported several months later but slipped back in and settled again in San Francisco. In September 1992 came a federal drug case in Sacramento. Court records place him and his brother Abraham at a San Francisco bar called the Imperial, to sell five ounces of heroin for 9,500 dollars. Abraham ran the deal while El Mencho, then 26, watched as a lookout. He noticed the buyers handed over neatly stacked bills rather than loose ones. A wiretap caught him telling his brother that these men were undercover police and that they should never deal with them again.
Three weeks later both men were arrested. In court, El Mencho said he had no part in the deal and that the agents lied about him handling the drugs. Prosecutors argued the brothers worked together. His defense believed a jury would convict him. Abraham already had felony drug sentences, so a trial risked a life term for him. El Mencho pleaded guilty to shield his brother and received five years. He served them at the Big Spring Correctional Center in Texas, which holds many undocumented immigrants. After three years he was paroled and deported to Mexico at age 30. His first job back home, strangely, was in uniform.
Cabo Corrientes and Tomatlán, two municipalities in Jalisco, were where he joined local police forces after returning to Mexico. He left the badge after some time and became a full-time member of the Milenio Cartel. To bind himself to the group, he married Rosalinda González Valencia, a sister of one of the clan's leaders. He began in the squad of assassins who protected the drug lord Armando Valencia Cornelio, alias El Maradona.
On the 12th of August 2003, Mexican authorities arrested El Maradona. Around the same time, the rival group Los Zetas, backed by the Gulf Cartel, launched an armed offensive against the Milenio Cartel in Michoacán. The assault pushed the Valencia family into exile in Jalisco. El Mencho settled in the state capital, Guadalajara, alongside his father-in-law José Luis González Valencia, alias El Quini, and Román Caballero Valencia.
There, the Milenio Cartel allied itself with a Sinaloa Cartel subgroup led by Ignacio Coronel, known as Nacho. Coronel was a senior drug lord and an ally of Joaquín Guzmán, El Chapo. Under him, El Mencho and his people ran the Sinaloa Cartel's drug operations, finances, and killings in Colima and Jalisco.
The arrests then began to hollow out the Milenio leadership. Óscar Orlando Nava Valencia, alias El Lobo, the group's top leader, was taken on the 28th of October 2009. His brother Juan Carlos, alias El Tigre, was arrested on the 6th of May 2010. Two months later, Coronel died in a shootout with the Mexican Army. The cartel began to fracture, and El Mencho tried to take control.
One faction wanted Elpidio Mojarro Ramírez, alias El Pilo, who had worked closely with the Nava brothers. Érick Valencia Salazar, a clan member, wanted El Mencho instead. El Mencho demanded that the other camp hand over Gerardo Mendoza, alias Tecato or Cochi, who had killed men under El Mencho's command in Tecomán, Colima. The other camp refused, and an internal war began.
The cartel split in two. One half was La Resistencia, the other was Los Mata Zetas, meaning the Zeta Killers, and El Mencho headed it. La Resistencia accused Los Mata Zetas of handing Óscar Orlando to the authorities. The two fought over smuggling territory in Jalisco. El Mencho's side also ran a propaganda campaign that denounced rivals for extorting civilians, businessmen, and officials. Los Mata Zetas won. They renamed themselves the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, or CJNG, and the old fights with Los Zetas were far from finished.
Los Zetas and the Knights Templar Cartel both tried to push into Jalisco, and El Mencho beat back each incursion. He built his organization through territorial expansion and by corrupting government officials. The CJNG went from a small offshoot gang to one of the leading criminal groups in Mexico. Government sources said he oversaw all of its drug trafficking in Jalisco, Colima, and Guanajuato, where he created a bastion for methamphetamine production and trade.
The group's operational strength was concentrated in eight states. In Jalisco, Colima, Guanajuato, Nayarit, and Veracruz, it held a firm grip on trafficking. In Morelos, Guerrero, and Michoacán, it fought rival groups. Between 2014 and 2016, Mexico City was the only region where the CJNG lost its territorial presence. Abroad, it reportedly had ties to criminal groups in the United States, the rest of Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, mostly around cocaine and methamphetamine.
The government estimated the group's total assets at about 50 billion US dollars. In 2019, Kyle Mori, who led the DEA team hunting El Mencho, told Univision he believed the man was worth at least 500 million dollars and possibly more than a billion. Part of the success came from reading the market. The CJNG began with methamphetamine, then moved into heroin production when consumer demand shifted. His brother-in-law Abigael González Valencia headed an allied group called Los Cuinis, until the Mexican Navy arrested him on the 28th of February 2015.
The DEA office in Los Angeles followed the trail for years. In 2000, American officials learned he was involved in an international cocaine and methamphetamine operation. Five years later they found he had used firearms to support it. In 2007 the DEA found a cocaine route running through Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico into the United States, plus a second cocaine shipment from Colombia via Mexico. A cocaine shipment from Ecuador followed in 2009, and two more shipments from Mexico appeared in 2013. In 2014 the pattern changed. He was found to have coordinated a methamphetamine shipment from Mexico to Australia and then to the United States, working with gangs based in China.
Trouble also came from inside. In March 2017, El Mencho ordered the killing of El Cholo, a former CJNG member who had murdered a financial operator nicknamed El Colombiano. The attempt failed. El Cholo then co-founded the Nueva Plaza Cartel and conspired against his old allies. Érick Valencia Salazar, a CJNG co-founder, also broke with El Mencho and became a high-ranking leader in the new cartel. A body found stabbed and wrapped in plastic on a park bench in downtown Tlaquepaque on the 18th of March 2021 was El Cholo's.
Critics were also silenced. On the 18th of December 2017, a 17-year-old YouTube star, Juan Luis Lagunas Rosales, known as El Pirata de Culiacán, was shot dead in a Jalisco bar by four men with rifles. He had just posted videotaped insults aimed at El Mencho. Police looked into whether El Mencho gave the order, but no charges were filed. Open attacks on state forces, though, were what made the government call him its principal enemy.
Tonaya, Jalisco, is where a Federal Police unit answered an anonymous tip on the 25th of August 2012 about an organized crime cell nearby. A shootout broke out, and six CJNG gunmen died. Early reports said El Mencho had been captured, but the government later confirmed he was not in custody. Other reporting said United States authorities had alerted Mexico after watching his girlfriend, who was importing methamphetamine at Gulfport, Mississippi.
In one effort to cover his escape, the CJNG blocked highways and roads across the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area by setting at least 37 vehicles on fire. The blockades sat on strategic routes to keep police reinforcements from entering or leaving the city. Afterward the government confirmed that he had been in the area and had gotten away.
The spring of 2015 brought a run of attacks. On the 19th of March, in Ocotlán, Jalisco, CJNG gunmen ambushed a Federal Police convoy. Eleven people died: five police officers, three civilians, and three gunmen. The attack was meant to protect El Mencho, who was reportedly there for a meeting. Four days later, in Zacoalco de Torres, Federal Police killed Heriberto Acevedo Cárdenas, alias El Gringo or El Güero, one of his close associates. Three other suspects died too. Acevedo Cárdenas had directed CJNG cells in Zacoalco, Tlajomulco, Cocula, Tapalpa, and Atemajac de Brizuela.
El Mencho responded by ordering attacks on the Federal Police. On the 30th of March in Zapopan, gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying Alejandro Solorio Aréchiga, Jalisco's security commissioner. No one was killed. On the 6th of April, in San Sebastián del Oeste, gunmen blocked a road with a burning vehicle and opened fire on a Jalisco State Police convoy. Fifteen policemen died and five were wounded, the deadliest single attack on Mexican police since 2010. That day hitmen also killed Miguel Ángel Caicedo Vargas, police chief of Zacoalco de Torres.
On the 1st of May 2015, the government launched Operation Jalisco, a military-led campaign against organized crime groups in the state. Intelligence that day placed El Mencho in Tonaya, and forces moved in. In Villa Purificación, his men shot down an Army helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, killing nine soldiers. The fighting spread across several municipalities. The CJNG burned 39 buses, 11 banks, and 16 gas stations, in attacks that reached 20 towns and three neighboring states.
Authorities believed he rarely stayed anywhere long. They thought he moved through Jalisco and into Michoacán, Colima, and Nayarit, usually over mountains and rural ground that offered several ways out of an encirclement. His inner circle was thought to be mercenaries with former military training. A larger outer ring served as a rearguard, warning of suspicious activity and ambushing anyone who came too close. Compared with kingpins like El Chapo, he was believed to live modestly, which helped him stay hidden.
Mexico's Office of the General Prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for El Mencho on the 27th of September 2011. It offered 2 million Mexican pesos for information leading to his arrest. The charges were organized crime involvement and illegal possession of firearms. In March 2014, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, building on DEA investigations, indicted him on several counts. These included drug trafficking and leading a Continuing Criminal Enterprise. Prosecutors said he and Abigael coordinated cocaine and methamphetamine shipments from South America through Mexico to the United States, and the collection of drug proceeds sent back to Mexico. A federal court in the Western District of Texas also sought a conviction for drug trafficking offenses.
On the 8th of April 2015, the United States Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned him under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The sanction also covered the CJNG, Abigael González Valencia, and Los Cuinis. Their United States assets were frozen, and American citizens were barred from doing business with them. The Treasury and the DEA office in Los Angeles had investigated together.
On the 17th of September 2015, the same office sanctioned five Jalisco businesses that supported the CJNG financially. They were a sushi restaurant in Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara, a tequila company in Guadalajara, a rental cabin business in Tapalpa, and an advertising firm and an agricultural company, both in Guadalajara. The report said this variety showed how far the CJNG had pushed into the economy.
On the 27th of October 2016, nine more people were sanctioned for material and financial help to El Mencho and González Valencia. They were his brother Antonio, his son-in-law Julio Alberto Castillo Rodríguez, five of González Valencia's siblings, a businessman named Fabián Felipe Vera López, and an attorney named María Teresa Quintana Navarro. The five siblings were Arnulfo, Édgar Edén, Elvis, Marisa Ivette, and Noemí. The aim was to disrupt a circle of complicit relatives and hurt their finances inside Mexico's domestic economy.
On the 15th of August 2018, the prosecutor's office offered up to 30 million pesos for his capture. A new arrest warrant lay behind it, tied to the alleged kidnapping and murder in February 2018 of two agents of the Criminal Investigation Agency. On the 16th of October 2018, the State, Justice, and Treasury departments announced a joint measure against the CJNG and doubled his bounty from 5 million to 10 million US dollars. It was one of the largest increases in the history of the Narcotics Rewards Program. In December 2024, the reward rose to 15 million dollars.
During the second presidency of Donald Trump, he was also named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, citing the fentanyl crisis and extreme violence in Mexico. That followed the earlier designation of the CJNG as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. By the end, Mexico's reward stood at 300 million pesos.
Rosalinda González Valencia, his wife, was arrested in May 2018 on money laundering charges. A bail of 1.5 million pesos, about 78,000 US dollars, freed her in September 2018, but the charges stayed. In November 2021, she was arrested again in Zapopan, Jalisco. Known as La Jefa, she was found to be the financial chief of the CJNG. El Mencho had separated from her in 2018 and was with another partner at the time of his death. Even so, the source of his influence in the cartel had come first through that marriage.
The couple had three children: Jessica Johanna Oseguera González, Laisha, and Rubén Oseguera González, called El Menchito. Mexican authorities regarded Rubén as the CJNG's second-in-command before his arrest in 2014. Courts released him several times for lack of evidence, and police re-arrested him each time on new charges. He was extradited to the United States on the 21st of February 2020. A Washington, D.C. federal jury convicted him in September 2024 on murder, drug trafficking, and firearm charges.
In February 2020, his sister Jessica Johanna, 33 and known as La Negra, was arrested in Washington when she went to visit Rubén. She was charged with dealings with Treasury-blacklisted businesses and with supporting the CJNG financially. She pleaded guilty on the 12th of March 2021, received a sentence of two and a half years that June, and left prison in April 2022. Her husband, Julio Alberto Castillo Rodríguez, alias El Ojo de Vidrio, was first arrested on the 1st of May 2015. He was freed on the 1st of July for lack of evidence, then arrested again on the 6th of April 2016 for involvement in the CJNG.
The brothers followed varied paths. Abraham, known as Don Rodo, got a 10-year prison sentence in California in the 1990s, and Mexican authorities accused him of murder in Michoacán in 2013, but those charges were dropped. Marín faced charges in a California court that are not public. Antonio lived in the United States and left a Mississippi prison in 2001 after a sentence for property damage. Soldiers and sailors arrested him in Jalisco on the 4th of December 2015 as a top financial operator. In December 2022, an army raid in Guadalajara seized him again, and authorities said he handled weapons, money laundering, and operations against other cartels. He was extradited to the United States on the 27th of February 2025. Juan and Miguel were also linked to the CJNG, and a burglary charge against Juan was dismissed.
On the 28th of February 2025, Mexican authorities recaptured Abraham, regarded as a founder of the CJNG. He had been jailed for nine days in April 2024. Reports said he handled money laundering and property purchases for the group, working with notary offices in Ciudad Guzmán and Autlán de Navarro. In February 2026 he was still in custody.
Other relatives came into the story as well. His nephew Omar Eleazar Oseguera Cervantes was suspected in 2016 of being part of the leadership and a top security chief. His brother-in-law Elvis González Valencia, the CJNG's lead financier, was arrested in 2016 and freed that December. In April 2019, his godson Adrián Alonso Guerrero Covarrubias was arrested on drug trafficking and kidnapping charges. He had run the Ciénega and northern Los Altos regions of Jalisco and part of southeastern Guanajuato for El Mencho.
The oddest case was his son-in-law Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez Ochoa, known as El Gaucho. After being charged over a 2021 kidnapping of two Mexican Navy members, he faked his own death and began a new life in California under another identity. El Mencho helped by telling associates he had killed his son-in-law for lying. Gutiérrez Ochoa reunited with El Mencho's daughter Laisha in the United States. He was arrested in Riverside, California, in November 2024. On the 20th of June 2025 he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit international money laundering, which carried up to 20 years. He admitted a vital role in the CJNG's laundering, using real estate deals, shell companies, and international transfers. On the 18th of December 2025, a judge sentenced him to 140 months.
With Rubén jailed in the United States, the line of succession was broken. Security consultant David Saucedo named his stepson Juan Carlos Valencia González, called El Pelon, and one of El Mencho's brothers as the likeliest successors. Saucedo added that El Pelon lacked influence among other commanders. The United States National CounterTerrorism Center nonetheless called him the de facto second in command. Another son-in-law, Castillo Rodríguez, known as El Chorro, was also named a CJNG leader.
Rumors of illness had circled him for years. In 2020, reports said he had kidney disease and had built a hospital in the village of El Alcíhuatl to treat it. His absence from public view fed talk that he was gravely sick or dead. Authorities said there was no reliable evidence of either his death or a serious health condition.
Soldiers acting on the Tapalpa operation reached him wounded. He died from gunshot wounds while being taken toward Mexico City. One account says the Army captured him first and that he later died of injuries from the crossfire during the transfer. In the hours afterward, criminal groups blocked roads with burning vehicles in Jalisco and in the states of Guanajuato, Nayarit, Michoacán, and Tamaulipas. Police reported shootouts and explosions. The number of casualties was unknown in the early accounts.
On the 3rd of March, he was buried in Zapopan after an elaborate funeral. The coffin was golden. The power vacuum was brief. On the 18th of March 2026, the Wall Street Journal reported that his stepson Juan Carlos Valencia González had become the CJNG's new leader. On the 6th of April 2026, the Spanish newspaper El País confirmed it, noting that he had worked his way through the vacuum his stepfather left.
Continue browsing
Updated
Common questions
Who was El Mencho?
El Mencho was Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, a Mexican drug lord who founded and led the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG. He was born on the 17th of July 1966 in Aguililla, Michoacán, and died on the 22nd of February 2026.
How did El Mencho die?
El Mencho died from gunshot wounds sustained during a Mexican military operation in Tapalpa, Jalisco, while being transported to Mexico City. The operation was aided by United States intelligence and set off widespread retaliatory violence by the CJNG.
What was the reward for El Mencho's capture?
The United States offered up to 15 million US dollars and Mexico offered up to 300 million Mexican pesos for information leading to El Mencho's arrest. The United States reward rose from 10 million to 15 million dollars in December 2024.
How did El Mencho found the Jalisco New Generation Cartel?
El Mencho founded the CJNG after the Milenio Cartel split into two sides. His faction, Los Mata Zetas, won the war against La Resistencia and then renamed itself the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Why did El Mencho spend time in the United States?
El Mencho immigrated illegally to California in the 1980s and was arrested in San Francisco in 1986 and 1989. In 1992 he pleaded guilty to a federal heroin charge, served three years of a five-year sentence, and was deported to Mexico at age 30.
Who took over the CJNG after El Mencho died?
His stepson Juan Carlos Valencia González, known as El Pelon, became head of the CJNG. The Wall Street Journal reported it on the 18th of March 2026, and El País confirmed it on the 6th of April 2026.
All sources
140 references cited across the entry
- 1NewsRosalinda Gonzalez Valencia, Wife of Jalisco Cartel Founder 'El Mencho,' to Get Early Release From PrisonHéctor Ríos Morales — Latin Times — 31 January 2025
- 3Revelan el verdadero nombre de “El Mencho” que aparece en su CURP y Nemesio no figura en sus registros oficialesVanesa Rojas — 24 February 2026
- 6MagazineThe Brutal Rise of el Mencho11 July 2017
- 7NewsMexican army kills leader of Jalisco New Generation Cartel, official says22 February 2026
- 12NewsThe New Chapo: An inside look at the hunt for El Mencho, Mexico's bloodiest drug lordGabe Gutierrez et al. — NBC News — 1 March 2021
- 17Treasury Targets Terrorism and Timeshare Fraud in Mexico13 August 2025
- 21NewsBody wrapped in plastic, left on park bench believed to be cartel bossMexico News Daily — 19 March 2021
- 22NewsMexican cartel leader's body left wrapped in plastic on park bench23 March 2021
- 23NewsMexican cartel leader 'El Menchito' extradited to U.S.Danielle Haynes — 21 February 2020
- 24NewsSuspected Mexican cartel figure handed over to U.S. amid surge of extraditionsMary Beth Sheridan et al. — 21 February 2020
- 25Mexican cartel leader's son convicted of violent role in drug trafficking plotMichael Kunzelman — 21 September 2024
- 26NewsNotorious Mexican Cartel Leader Convicted for International Drug Trafficking and Firearms OffensesU.S. Drug Enforcement Agency — 24 September 2024
- 28Operation Jalisco has failed after three years3 May 2018
- 30Wife of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader released from jail8 September 2018
- 31Federal forces capture two cartel chieftains in Jalisco10 April 2019
- 34NewsTrump Signed the Early Release of Cartel Boss El Mencho's DaughterDeborah Bonello — 7 April 2022
- 35NewsThe downfall of Rosalinda González, leading figure of a powerful Mexican drug cartelElena Reina — El País — 18 November 2021
- 36NewsRosalinda González: alleged CJNG chief comes from a family of narcosMexican News Daily — 18 November 2021
- 37News"El Tony Montana" – the brother of Mexico's most wanted cartel boss "El Mencho" – is arrested by the armyCBS News — 20 December 2022
- 38NewsMexico sends drug lord Caro Quintero and 28 others to the US as officials meet with Trump teamAP News — 28 February 2025
- 39NewsCartel extraditions could produce violence, Texas sheriff warnsJorge Ventura et al. — News Nation — 28 February 2025
- 40NewsMexican cartel leader who faked own death to "live a life of luxury" in U.S. is arrested in California, feds sayCBS News — 21 November 2024
- 41NewsHigh-Ranking Mexican Cartel Leader Arrested on Charges of International Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering After Faking Own Death to Live in California Under Assumed IdentityDepartment of Justice Office of Public Affairs — 21 November 2024
- 42NewsLaisha Oseguera, Daughter Of "El Mencho", Can Be Apprehended, Denied Suspension Of Protective OrderSol Prendido — Borderland Beat — 29 April 2022
- 43NewsA Mexican cartel leader arrested in the US faked his death and assumed a phony name, prosecutors sayAlanna Durkin Richer — Associated Press — 21 November 2024
- 44Co-Founder of Los Cuinis Drug Cartel Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison; High-Ranking Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) Operative Pleads GuiltyOffice of Public Affairs — U.S. Department of Justice — 20 June 2025
- 45NewsMexican Cartel Leader Sentenced to Over 11 Years in Prison for International Money LaunderingOffice of Public Affairs — U.S. Department of Justice — December 18, 2025
- 46NewsMexican drug cartel member accused of faking his death is sentenced to 11-plus years in U.S. prisonMichael Kunzelman — Los Angeles Times — December 18, 2025
- 47News'Don Rodo,' Older Brother of Jalisco Cartel Leader 'El Mencho,' Recaptured By Mexican AuthoritieHéctor Ríos Morales — Latin Times — 3 March 2025
- 48Brother of Mexican drug lord 'El Mencho' released, security ministry saysRaul Cortes — Reuters — 30 April 2024
- 49NewsThe Jalisco New Generation Cartel, a criminal enterprise with a turbulent riseZedryk Raziel — El Pais — February 23, 2026
- 50NewsWho was ‘El Mencho,’ the cartel leader killed in a military operation?Rocío Muñoz-Ledo — CNN — February 23, 2026
- 53New Generation Jalisco Cartel (CJNG)National CounterTerrorism Center
- 54NewsHow will Mexico's president handle "El Mencho", a kingpin on the rise?15 August 2020
- 56NewsBetrayals, In-Fighting, Mysteriously Vanished Leader – Is Jalisco Cartel on the Brink?Peter Appleby — Insight Crime — 25 May 2022
- 57NewsEl Mencho, líder del CJNG, murió durante su traslado a la Ciudad de México, anuncia DefensaJuan Castillo — 22 February 2026
- 58NewsNemesio Oseguera, 'El Mencho,' the most wanted drug trafficker, is killed in a security operationPablo Ferri — El País
- 59NewsVehicles torched in Mexico's Jalisco following federal operationLeila Miller — Reuters — 22 February 2026
- 60NewsCanadians in Mexican state ordered to shelter in place as violence eruptsCTV News — 22 February 2026
- 61NewsMexican security forces reportedly kill drug cartel boss 'El Mencho'Tom Phillips et al. — 22 February 2026
- 62NewsMexican army kills leader of Jalisco New Generation Cartel, official saysCTV News — 22 February 2026
- 63NewsWhat the future holds for the CJNG cartel after leader killedFrance 24 — February 23, 2026
- 64NewsSlain cartel leader ‘El Mencho’ buried in a golden casketCNN — March 3, 2026
- 65NewsA U.S. Citizen Now Runs Mexico’s Top Drug Cartel—and Targeting Him Is ComplicatedJosé de Córdoba et al. — Wall Street Journal — March 18, 2026
- 66NewsJuan Carlos Valencia GonzalezBeatriz Guillén — El Pais — April 6, 2026
- 67Narcotics Rewards Program: Rubén Oseguera CervantesUnited States Department of State
- 68Houston Fugitives: Nemesio Oseguera-CervantesDrug Enforcement Administration
- 69NewsLa acelerada vida de El Mencho, el hombre más buscado de MéxicoAlberto Nájar — BBC Mundo — 20 May 2015
- 70MagazineThe Brutal Rise of El MenchoJosh Eells — 11 July 2017
- 71NewsNemesio Oseguera 'El Mencho', el gallero al que le gustaba ser un 'fantasma' y capo del narcoSergio Rincón — Univision — 12 September 2016
- 72News'El Mencho', el deportado que se convirtió en el narco más sanguinarioJorge Almada Morales — Univision — 11 April 2016
- 73NewsNemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias 'El Mencho'InSight Crime — 21 May 2015
- 74NewsFamiliares de 'El Mencho' se amparan; temen detencionesJuan Carlos Huerta — 22 October 2015
- 75NewsDiversifica 'Mencho' mercado del narcoZócalo Saltillo — 31 January 2014
- 76NewsCrystal meth 'superpower': An upstart cartel is climbing to the top of Mexico's narco underworldChristopher Woody — 11 October 2016
- 77NewsFrom Police Officer to Drug Lord: The Rise of Mexico's Most Wanted ManMichael Lohmuller — InSight Crime — 21 May 2015
- 78NewsRadiografía del narco: cárteles del Pacífico y Jalisco, dominan; Templarios y Zetas se replieganArturo Angel — Animal Político — 12 June 2016
- 79NewsGuzman extradition opens door to new cartelLaurent Thomet — Yahoo! Finance — 20 January 2017
- 80NewsWho Runs Mexico's Jalisco Cartel and Los Cuinis?David Gagne — InSight Crime — 9 April 2015
- 81NewsEn los 90 EU apresó al 'Mencho' y al 'Cuini' ... pero los dejó irJuan Pablo Becerra-Acosta et al. — 2 May 2015
- 82NewsLa evolución del Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación: de la extinción al dominio globalLuis Alonso Pérez — Animal Político — 29 November 2016
- 83Treasury Sanctions Five Businesses Supporting Cartel De Jalisco Nueva GeneracionUnited States Department of the Treasury — 17 September 2015
- 84NewsNiega juez amparo a la hija de 'El Mencho'Diana Lastiri — 30 December 2016
- 85CJNG & Los Cuinis: Drug Trafficking OrganizationsOffice of Foreign Assets Control — April 2015
- 86NewsLa Armada de México Asegura A Presuntos Integrantes Del Cártel de Jalisco Nueva GeneraciónMexican Navy — 27 August 2012
- 87NewsLos Oseguera, líderes del cártel de Jalisco1 January 2014
- 88NewsDe Menchito no tenía nada, conoce al mando del CJNG2 July 2015
- 89NewsHermanos del 'Mencho' Oseguera viven fuera de MéxicoSPD Noticias — 16 June 2015
- 90NewsDetención de Óscar Orlando Nava Valencia (a) 'EL LOBO', líder de la Organización delictiva 'LOS VALENCIA'Mexican Army — 30 October 2009
- 91NewsCapturan a líder del cártel de 'Los Valencia'El Informador — 10 May 2010
- 92NewsCJNG: La sombra que nadie vioHéctor de Mauleón — Revista Nexos — 1 June 2015
- 93NewsJalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG)InSight Crime — 6 May 2015
- 94NewsEl niño que cultivaba aguacates y llegó a arrebatarle parte del negocio a "El Chapo" GuzmánJuliana Fregoso — Infobae — 19 March 2017
- 95NewsMarina detiene a operador del cártel Jalisco Nueva GeneraciónDavid Vicenteño — 2 March 2017
- 96NewsProcuraduría de Justicia de Jalisco turna a la PGR investigación de bloqueosDulce Ramos — Animal Político — 27 August 2012
- 97NewsLos narcobloqueos en Jalisco, plan de distracción para que huyera El Mencho29 August 2012
- 98NewsDetención de 'El Mencho' causó narcobloqueos; ofrecía PGR 19 MDP por su captura26 August 2012
- 99NewsGuadalajara Road Blockades Not Prompted by Cartel Leader Arrest: PoliceElyssa Pachico — InSight Crime — 31 August 2012
- 100NewsConfirman que 'El Mencho' escapó gracias a narcobloqueosUnivision — 28 August 2012
- 101NewsPolicias, objetivo de cartel; en 20 dias matan a 21Raúl Torres — 8 April 2015
- 102NewsJefe de célula del CJNG, una de las víctimas de enfrentamiento en Jalisco25 March 2015
- 103NewsBloody Attack on Police in Mexico Raises Jalisco Cartel's ProfileDavid Gagne — InSight Crime — 8 April 2015
- 104NewsAgresión contra Solorio Aréchiga fue por abatimiento de 'El Gringo'Andrés Zúñiga — Unión Jalisco — 31 March 2015
- 105NewsAssailants block Mexican police convoy, kill 15 officers in ambushTracy Wilkinson — 7 April 2015
- 106NewsMéxico: matan a 15 policías en una emboscada en JaliscoBBC Mundo — 6 April 2015
- 107NewsFifteen Mexican police officers killed in deadly ambush in Jalisco stateJo Tuckman — 7 April 2015
- 108NewsConfirman asesinato de director de policía de Zacoalco de Torres7 April 2015
- 109NewsAutoridades Federales implementan 'Operación Jalisco'1 May 2015
- 111NewsSuman nueve muertos por derribo de helicóptero en Jalisco10 May 2015
- 112NewsTras caída de helicóptero escapó 'El Mencho', por quinta vezEl Diario de Juárez — 8 May 2015
- 113NewsSeven killed and a military helicopter shot down amid wave of violence in MexicoDuncan Tucker — 2 May 2015
- 114NewsMexico's Jalisco Cartel – New Generation: From Extinction to World DominationInSight Crime — 26 December 2016
- 115Mexican Drug Cartels and Dark‑Networks: An Emerging Threat to Australia's National SecurityDr. Anthea McCarthy-Jones et al. — Strategic and Defence Studies Centre — April 2016
- 116Procuraduría General de la República: Acuerdo A/ 102 /11Office of the General Prosecutor — 27 September 2011
- 117Recompensas: Nemesio Oseguera CervantesOffice of the General Prosecutor — 2011
- 118Treasury Further Targets The Business Network of the Los Cuinis Drug Trafficking OrganizationEmbassy of the United States, Mexico City — 4 April 2016
- 119NewsUnited States of America v. Abigael Gonzalez Valencia and Nemesio Oseguera CervantesAndrea Goldbarg — United States District Court for the District of Columbia — 2014
- 120NewsMexican YouTube star, 17, found dead after insulting notorious cartel bossSamantha Schmidt — 21 December 2017
- 121Ofrece PGR recompensa de 30 millones de pesos por información que conduzca a la detención de Rubén Oseguera CervantesProcuraduría General de la República — 15 August 2018
- 122NewsMexico: bounty raised over $1m on drug cartel kingpin 'El Mencho'David Agren — 15 August 2018
- 123NewsPGR sube a $30 millones recompensa por la cabeza de 'El Mencho'Manuel Espino Bucio — 15 August 2018
- 124NewsU.S. Offers $10 Million for Information Leading to Mexican Drug Lord's Arrest16 October 2018
- 125Justice, Treasury, and State Departments Announce Coordinated Enforcement Efforts Against Cartel Jalisco Nueva GeneracionUnited States Department of Justice — 16 October 2018
- 126Treasury Sanctions Two Major Mexican Drug Organizations and Two of Their LeadersUnited States Department of Treasury — 8 April 2015
- 127CJNG and Los Cuinis: Drug Trafficking OrganizationsOffice of Foreign Assets Control — September 2015
- 128Treasury Sanctions Individuals Supporting Powerful Mexico-Based Drug CartelsUnited States Department of the Treasury — 27 October 2016
- 129NewsEl clan de 'El Mencho' ubicado en EUEl Debate de Sinaloa — 16 June 2015
- 130NewsCapturan al hermano del 'Mencho' en JaliscoRaúl Flores Martínez — 5 December 2012
- 131NewsCae el hermano de 'El Mencho' en JaliscoJuan Carlos Huerta — 4 December 2015
- 132News¿Quién es el Mencho?El Debate de Sinaloa — 4 May 2015
- 133NewsReaprehenden al yerno de 'El Mencho' en JaliscoLemic Madrid — TV Azteca — 6 April 2016
- 134NewsDetienen a yerno de 'El Mencho'Rubén Mosso — 6 April 2016
- 135NewsA 'El Menchito' lo agarraron porque 'no le avisaron a tiempo'Rubén Mosso — 7 July 2015
- 136News'El Menchito', un desafío para la PGRJuan Carlos Huerta Vázquez — 15 January 2016
- 137NewsUbican en EU a clan de 'Mencho'Reforma — 16 July 2015
- 138NewsLa reestructura del CJNG26 December 2015
- 139NewsLa guarida de El Mencho, en los límites de Jalisco y MichoacánDennis A. García — 17 August 2018
- 140NewsLa derrota militar en JaliscoRaymundo Riva Palacio — 8 May 2015
- 141News¿Dónde se esconde 'El Mencho'?El Universal — 5 June 2018