Violence erupted in Mexico’s Jalisco on Sunday night after security forces killed “El Mencho”, the notorious leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the country’s most powerful drug cartels.
The drug lord Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes was the Mexican government’s biggest prize yet to show the Trump administration in its efforts to crack down on the cartels, and his death was met with a forceful reaction from the cartel, known by its Spanish initials CJNG.
Cars burned out by cartel members blocked roads at more than 250 points in 20 Mexican states, authorities said, and left smoke billowing into the air.
Jalisco’s capital, Guadalajara, was turned into a ghost town Sunday night as civilians hunkered down. School was cancelled Monday in several states. Authorities in Jalisco, Michoacan and Guanajuato reported at least 14 dead, including seven National Guard troops.
Videos circulating on social media showed smoke billowing over the tourist city of Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco, and people sprinting through the airport of the state’s capital in panic. A number of Mexican and international airlines also canceled flights.
Oseguera Cervantes was wounded in an operation to capture him Sunday in Tapalpa, Jalisco, about a two-hour drive southwest of Guadalajara and he died while being flown to Mexico City, the Defence Department said in a statement. The state is the base of the cartel known for trafficking huge quantities of fentanyl and other drugs to the United States.
During the operation, troops came under fire and killed four people at the location. Three more people, including Oseguera Cervantes, were wounded and later died, the statement said. Two others were arrested and armoured vehicles, rocket launchers and other arms were seized. Three members of the armed forces were wounded and receiving medical treatment.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said via X that the US government provided intelligence support for the operation. “‘El Mencho’ was a top target for the Mexican and United States government as one of the top traffickers of fentanyl into our homeland,” she wrote. She commended Mexico’s military for its work.
Major fentanyl trafficker
The US State Department had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest of El Mencho. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is one of the most powerful and fastest-growing criminal organisations in Mexico and began operating around 2009.
The cartel has been one of the most aggressive cartels in its attacks on the military — including on helicopters — and is a pioneer in launching explosives from drones and installing mines.
In 2020, it carried out a spectacular assassination attempt with grenades and high-powered rifles in the heart of Mexico City against the then head of the capital’s police force and now federal security secretary.
Oseguera Cervantes, 59, was originally from Aguililla in the neighbouring state of Michoacan. He had been significantly involved in drug trafficking activities since the 1990s.
When he was younger, he migrated to the US where he was convicted of conspiracy to distribute heroin in the US District Court for the Northern District of California in 1994 and served nearly three years in prison.
Following his release from custody, Oseguera Cervantes returned to Mexico and reengaged in drug trafficking activity with drug lord Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, alias “Nacho Coronel.” After Villarreal’s death, Oseguera Cervantes and Erik Valencia Salazar, alias “El 85,” created the Jalisco New Generation Cartel around 2007.
Initially, they worked for the Sinaloa Cartel, but eventually split and for years the two cartels have battled for territory across Mexico.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) considers the cartel to be as powerful as the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s most infamous criminal groups, with a presence in all 50 US states. It is one of the main suppliers of cocaine to the US market and, like the Sinaloa cartel, earns billions from the production of fentanyl and methamphetamines.
Sinaloa, however, has been weakened by infighting after the loss of its leaders Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, both in US custody.
In February 2025, the Trump administration designated the cartel as a foreign terrorist organisation.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has criticised the “kingpin” strategy of previous administrations that took out cartel leaders only to trigger explosions of violence as cartels fractured. While she has remained popular in Mexico, security is a persistent concern and since US President Donald Trump took office a year ago, she has been under tremendous pressure to show results against drug trafficking.