Mexican military kills cartel boss ‘El Mencho’

February 24, 2026

1 minute read

Rubén Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho

ONE of Mexico’s most notorious drug lords, Nemesio Oseguera, or “El Mencho,” was killed in a military raid on Sunday, sparking widespread retaliatory violence.

President Claudia Sheinbaum has been under mounting pressure from Washington to intensify her offensive against drug cartels blamed for producing and smuggling drugs, particularly the synthetic opioid fentanyl, across the border to the U.S.

Oseguera, a former police officer, founded and oversaw the rapid rise of the CJNG, named for the western state of Jalisco that is home to one of Mexico’s biggest cities, Guadalajara.

In recent years, CJNG has expanded into one of Mexico’s most powerful cartels, known for violent tactics including forced labor and forced recruitment.

Under El Mencho’s leadership, CJNG also became a highly diversified criminal enterprise, expanding from drug trafficking to fuel theft, extortion, human smuggling, and complex financial frauds. The cartel pioneered use of drones in attacks against civilians in remote regions of western Mexico as part of its rapid territorial expansion.

Sunday’s raid was one of Mexico’s highest profile blows against drug gangs responsible for smuggling billions of dollars of drugs including fentanyl into the U.S. In recent years, the leaders of the rival Sinaloa Cartel U.S. prisons.

President Donald Trump’s administration lauded El Mencho’s killing, but domestic violence it triggered highlighted the political balancing act Sheinbaum must strike as her government escalates its cartel offensive.

—Reuters

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