February 25, 2026 | 05:12 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Mexican forces found and killed one of the most sought-after drug lords in the country, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as 'El Mencho,' on Sunday, February 22, 2026. Following the killing in a US-backed raid, violence erupted in various regions of Mexico as armed individuals burned vehicles and erected roadblocks in around 20 states.
As reported by Al Jazeera, El Mencho was the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which operates from the state of Jalisco in the western part of Mexico and is known for its heavily militarized weaponry.
The 59-year-old man, when killed, hailed from the neighboring state of Michoacan. He was reportedly a former police officer before becoming a drug lord.
His career in Mexico's drug trafficking network shone in the 1990s. In 1994, he was convicted in the US for heroin trafficking and served nearly three years in prison before returning to Mexico.
There are plenty stories about El Mencho's methods of dealing with his enemies. He once reportedly sent a severed pig's head in a box to a Mexican attorney as a threat, as reported by Rolling Stone in 2015, citing a former field agent of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
In a recorded phone call, El Mencho once threatened a local police commander who attempted to arrest him, promising to kill him and the police officers if they did not back off.
As El Mencho became an influential drug trafficker, he began to heavily invest in submarines used to transport drugs from South America to the US, as reported by Rolling Stone. The magazine quoted a former DEA agent as saying that El Mencho hired Russian navy engineers to help design these submarines.
He became one of the most wanted fugitives in Washington. The US offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his capture.
Annette Idler, an associate professor of Global Security at the University of Oxford, stated that El Mencho's death is symbolically significant, as he played a crucial role in the transformation of the Jalisco Cartel. This cartel became one of the most powerful and globally connected criminal organizations.
El Mencho founded the cartel in 2009 and it grew rapidly. The network utilized online recruitment and diversified its revenue streams through fuel theft, extortion, timeshare scams, and other crimes.
The US has identified the Jalisco Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel as responsible for smuggling fentanyl into the country in recent years. The DEA considers the Jalisco Cartel as strong as the Sinaloa Cartel, with a presence in all 50 US states. The DEA stated that the cartel is active in 21 out of Mexico's 32 states.
The Jalisco Cartel is known for its attacks on Mexican security forces. In 2015, they shot down a military helicopter in Jalisco. In 2020, the group attempted to assassinate the then-head of Mexico City's police, Omar Garcia Harfuch, who now serves as the federal security secretary.
In February last year, Mexico extradited the senior leader of the Jalisco Cartel, Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho's brother, to the US.
El Mencho was fatally shot by Mexican special forces during a military operation to capture him in Tapalpa, southern Jalisco, on Sunday. Authorities stated that he was killed during the operation.
Read: After El Mencho's Death, Lawmaker: Protect Indonesians in Mexico
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