El Mencho’s family requests the release of the CJNG leader’s body

A legal representative for the family of Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho,” has submitted a request to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to begin the process of releasing the body of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). The body is being held by the Mexican Forensic Service (Semefo), and the public prosecutor must complete all procedural steps required to formally hand it over, according to the FGR’s statement.

The agency also reported that the two people arrested during the operation in Tapalpa, Jalisco — in which the drug boss was captured and injured — are being prosecuted for carrying weapons reserved exclusively for the army.

Mexico’s Public Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch already said on Monday, a day after the operation, that authorities expected someone from Oseguera’s inner circle to begin the process to claim his body. “Normally, the remains are claimed by relatives and handed over,” he said at a press conference.

El Mencho’s body has been genetically identified by FGR forensic personnel who performed the autopsy, the agency reported Monday, as have the remains of two of his companions who were gravely injured alongside him and died during the air transfer for medical care.

During the operation in Tapalpa, Mexico’s Special Forces and the National Guard surrounded Oseguera’s security detail in an area of tourist cabins they located by tracking one of the CJNG leader’s romantic partners. El Mencho’s gunmen opened fire on the military to give their boss a chance to escape. Eight members of the group were killed at the scene, and authorities eventually found the cartel leader and two of his bodyguards severely wounded in the brush of a nearby wooded area. Medical personnel who arrived determined that all three were in critical condition and required urgent evacuation. Two other members of the group were taken alive.

The three wounded men were loaded onto an army helicopter to be flown to a hospital in Guadalajara, just minutes away by air. However, El Mencho and his bodyguards died during the transfer. The helicopter then changed course toward Morelia, Michoacán, to move the bodies onto an Air Force plane bound for Mexico City.

“It wasn’t advisable to land in Guadalajara, especially given the risk that this group might carry out more violent actions in the capital of Jalisco,” explained Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla, alluding to the symbolic significance of the cartel leader. The three bodies have been held at the Semefo in Mexico City ever since, awaiting a formal claim.

The two surviving members of the group who were arrested have been identified by the FGR as Andrés “N” and Genaro “N.” Both are being prosecuted by the Special Attorney General’s Office for Organized Crime for carrying weapons and magazines classified as exclusively for military use. A judge has ordered mandatory pretrial detention for both men, who have been transferred to the Altiplano maximum‑security prison.

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