Who Was El Mencho, Mexico’s Most Wanted Man?

Published: 23 February 2026 . The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online

Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes — better known as El Mencho — was the elusive and feared leader of Mexico’s most powerful drug syndicate, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), and for years one of the most wanted men in the world. His death in a high‑stakes Mexican military operation in Jalisco state this week marked the end of a decades‑long criminal reign that reshaped Mexico’s organized‑crime landscape and triggered waves of violence across the country.

Born on 17 July 1966 in the rural town of Naranjo de Chila in Michoacán, El Mencho grew up amid poverty before emigrating to the United States as a young man and becoming involved in small‑scale drug trafficking. In 1994 he was arrested in California on heroin distribution charges and served nearly three years in prison before being deported back to Mexico.

Back in Mexico, Oseguera Cervantes first worked with established criminal groups, including the Milenio Cartel and later elements of the now‑infamous Sinaloa Cartel. By around 2009 he had broken away and founded the CJNG, which quickly expanded into one of the country’s fastest‑growing and most violent criminal organisations. His cartel built a sprawling network trafficking cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl into the United States, as well as engaging in extortion, fuel theft, kidnapping and other rackets across Mexico and beyond.

Under El Mencho’s rule, the CJNG became notorious for its combination of brutal violence and paramilitary‑style tactics, deploying advanced weaponry, including drones and heavy arms, to fight rival groups and Mexican security forces. At its height, the suicide‑raid‑style attacks and public beheadings attributed to CJNG cells helped cement the cartel’s fearsome reputation.

Oseguera’s rise was marked not just by battlefield ferocity but also by strategic expansion. He leveraged alliances, corruption and tight internal loyalty to build CJNG into a global trafficking powerhouse that rivalled the Sinaloa Cartel — the group once led by iconic criminal Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is now serving a U.S. life sentence. For years, Mexican and U.S. authorities offered large rewards — reportedly up to $15 million — for information leading to his capture.

El Mencho kept a low public profile, so few clear personal images of him exist, and much of what authorities knew about his whereabouts was pieced together from intelligence and cartel member arrests. His death came during a federal security operation in the rugged terrain near Tapalpa, Jalisco, where he was reportedly killed after Mexican forces engaged cartel fighters.

News of his death sparked violent reactions from CJNG factions across several Mexican states, with roads blocked, vehicles burned and clashes reported in cities such as Guadalajara as rival groups and loyalists reacted to the power vacuum.

As the CJNG adjusts to a post‑El Mencho world, analysts caution that cartel fragmentation could fuel further violence — raising questions about how Mexico will contain organized crime and stem the flow of illicit drugs into North America.

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