Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” was the boss of one of the fastest-growing criminal networks in Mexico, known for trafficking fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine to the United States and staging brazen attacks against government officials who challenged the cartel.
He was killed after a shootout in his home state of Jalisco as the Mexican military attempted to capture him. Cartel members responded with widespread violence, blocking roads and setting fire to vehicles.
Mexican Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla said Monday that authorities had followed one of Oseguera Cervantes' romantic partners to his hideout in Tapalpa, Jalisco.
Army and National Guard special forces moved in Sunday morning and immediately came under heavy fire. Eight gunmen were killed there. Oseguera Cervantes and two bodyguards fled into a wooded area where they were seriously wounded in a firefight, Trevilla said. They were flown out along with a wounded soldier, but El Mencho and his bodyguards died en route to Mexico City, he said.
In a different location in Jalisco, soldiers also killed another high-ranking cartel member who Trevilla said was coordinating violence and offering more than $1,000 for every soldier killed.
Also killed Sunday were a prison guard, an agent from the state prosecutor’s office and a woman who was not identified by authorities. Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said some 30 criminal suspects were killed in Jalisco and four others were killed in the neighboring state of Michoacan.
Several Mexican states canceled school Monday, and local and foreign governments warned their citizens to stay inside after widespread violence erupted.
President Claudia Sheinbaum urged calm, and authorities said all of the more than 250 cartel roadblocks across 20 states had been cleared by Monday.
The White House confirmed that the U.S. provided intelligence support to the operation to capture the cartel leader and applauded Mexico's army for taking down a man who was one of the most wanted criminals in both countries.
Mexico hoped the death of the world's biggest fentanyl traffickers would ease Trump administration pressure to do more against the cartels, but many people were on edge as they waited to see the powerful cartel's reaction.
