The final hours of El Mencho, the world’s most wanted criminal

The story of the world’s most wanted drug trafficker ends with him huddled in a forest in the mountains of Jalisco. Mortally wounded, armed with a rocket launcher, and accompanied by four of his most trusted men, the journey of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho,” came to an end in the early hours of Sunday morning after four decades dedicated to drug trafficking and building his own criminal empire, the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). El Mencho died from gunfire by a Mexican Army special forces unit, which had spent years gathering intelligence to locate him and finally found his last known position in the same way they had brought about the downfall of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán 10 years earlier, also on February 22nd: through the visit from a woman.

The secretary of National Defense, Ricardo Trevilla, provided some details on Monday about what is already Mexico’s most significant operation against organized crime in recent years. The general emphasized from the outset how “difficult” the intelligence process is, the time required to analyze which people and places are frequented by those who sow violence in the country. In the case of El Mencho, it was primarily the work of the Mexican Army, but they also received “complementary information” from the United States. “There was a lot of additional information that the US gave us, which, when integrated with what we had, allowed us to pinpoint his exact location,” the general stated.

For some time, Mexican authorities had been tracking Tapalpa, a mountain town of about 20,000 inhabitants in the interior of Jalisco, as the refuge of the CJNG leader. On February 20, confirmation arrived: one of El Mencho’s romantic partners was being taken there; although Oseguera is married to Rosalinda González Valencia, who was arrested in 2018. The Army got to know this because they had located a trusted man of the woman, who was going to take her. “She met with El Mencho, and on February 21, she left the property. Information was obtained that El Mencho remained there with a security detail,” Ricardo Trevilla recounted.

How many security rings could one of the world’s most powerful criminals have? That was a question the Mexican government had asked itself many times. How many lives might be lost in capturing him? That was the other. However, everything indicated that on Saturday, El Mencho was accompanied by only about ten bodyguards in some cabins outside Tapalpa. Special forces began preparing by land and air. Six helicopters were positioned in states near Jalisco “to maintain secrecy and ensure surprise.” In the early hours of Sunday morning, the final confirmation was received.

The military deployed on foot around the cabins. They had two support aircraft. The encirclement began with the stated objective —according to the Secretary of Defense— of arresting him. However, El Mencho’s security detail began firing. “They opened fire on the military personnel. El Mencho came out and left a group with a large quantity of weapons. It was a very violent attack carried out by the organized crime group. The special forces military personnel repelled the attack; a total of eight criminals died there,” Trevilla explained. Two soldiers were also wounded. When they inspected the cabins, they found seven long guns, eight vehicles, two quad bikes, and two rocket launchers, one of them the same type used to shoot down the helicopter in 2015 during the first operation to capture El Mencho.

The action continued in the surrounding woods. The leader of the Jalisco Cartel had fled on foot with four of his closest associates. “Special forces pursued them. A perimeter was established. They located him hiding in the undergrowth, and he opened fire on the special forces personnel. They were also carrying rocket launchers, but fortunately, they didn’t use them,” the general recounted. In the crossfire, a soldier, El Mencho, and two of his bodyguards were wounded. Two other members of the CJNG were arrested unharmed. The Army seized the rocket launcher, three rifles, and two handguns. “Once the situation was under control, medical personnel were called in.” They determined that both the cartel leader and his bodyguards were in critical condition.

“Helicopter support was requested to transport them to Guadalajara,” Trevilla noted. However, the drug lord and the two hitmen died en route. At that moment, the helicopter changed course due to the risk of transporting Oseguera, already dead, to the cartel’s stronghold. “It was decided that they would go to Morelia, Michoacán, where an Air Force transport plane was waiting. They arrived there and were transferred to the transport plane, which headed to Mexico City,” the general explained. “It wasn’t advisable to go to Guadalajara, especially given the risk that this group would carry out more violent actions in the capital of Jalisco.”

The CJNG’s reaction to the capture of their leader was swift. His right-hand man, Hugo César Macías, known as “El Tuli,” began organizing roadblocks and violent actions from El Grullo, a town about 100 kilometers from where the operation against El Mencho had taken place. The cartel’s main logistics and financial operator targeted military installations: “They were offering 20,000 pesos [about $1,100] for each soldier killed by the CJNG.” An army paratrooper unit was then deployed to El Grullo. El Tuli tried to escape in a vehicle, but he too was killed. In addition to weapons, he was carrying almost one million dollars and 7.2 million pesos.

In total, the Jalisco Cartel set up 252 roadblocks on Sunday across 20 states. Some, like Tabasco, were more than 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from where El Mencho had been detained. The burning of vehicles and businesses also spread across half the country, forcing a dozen states to suspend school classes for Monday and urgently convene their security cabinets.

The highest death toll wasn’t recorded during the operation in Tapalpa, but afterward. The organized crime group killed 25 members of the National Guard, a prison guard, an agent from the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office, and a civilian; on the other side, 30 alleged cartel members died. That was just in Jalisco. In Michoacán, another stronghold of the CJNG, 15 soldiers were wounded and four suspected hitmen were killed in the numerous clashes on Sunday.

Overall, the death of El Mencho has left at least 72 casualties: 45 from organized crime, 26 from security forces, and one civilian. The president, Claudia Sheinbaum, recognized the “extraordinary” members of Mexico’s armed forces: “Men and women who are always willing to give their lives for others.” Furthermore, she has sought to reassure the public, stating that there are no longer any roadblocks on any highway in the country and that flights to Jalisco are expected to return to normal in the coming days. The mayor indicated that she learned “very early” of the operation against the leader of the Jalisco Cartel and that her decision was to establish a command center with all security forces. Now, all that remains is to await the reshuffling within the criminal empire built by the most wanted drug trafficker.