Mexican security forces have killed a drug lord who led one of the most powerful criminal organisations in the country, triggering a wave of violence in several areas, including the western state of Jalisco.<\/p>\n
The Mexican Secretariat of National Defence said Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, also known as \u201cEl Mencho\u201d, was wounded in a clash with soldiers in the town of Tapalpa, in Jalisco state, on Sunday and died while being flown to Mexico City.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n He had a $15m bounty by the United States on his head.<\/p>\n The operation set off a wave of \u2060violence, with gunmen torching cars and blocking highways in more than half a dozen states.<\/p>\n Jalisco\u2019s capital, Guadalajara, which will host several matches in the upcoming FIFA World Cup, was turned into a ghost town on Sunday night as civilians hunkered down.<\/p>\n Videos circulating on social media showed people sprinting through the Guadalajara airport in panic and smoke billowing over the tourist city of Puerto Vallarta.<\/p>\n Jalisco Governor Pablo Lemus told residents to stay at home and suspended public transportation.<\/p>\n School was canceled on Monday in several states.<\/p>\n Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum praised the country\u2019s security forces in a post on X and called for calm.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is absolute coordination with the governments of all states,\u201d she wrote. \u201cIn the vast majority of the national territory, activities are proceeding with complete normality.\u201d<\/p>\n Oseguera, 59, is one of the biggest Mexican drug lords to be taken down since the capture of the founders of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman and Ismael Zambada, who are now both in US custody.<\/p>\n The Mexican defence secretariat said Sunday\u2019s raid was carried out with \u201ccomplementary information\u201d from US authorities. It said four members of Oseguera\u2019s Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) were killed in the raid, while two others died during their transfer to Mexico City.<\/p>\n Two more were arrested and armoured vehicles, rocket launchers and other arms were seized.<\/p>\n Three members of the armed forces were wounded and receiving medical treatment, it said.<\/p>\n The US has classified the Jalisco cartel as a \u201cterrorist organization\u201d and accuses it of sending cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl into the country.<\/p>\n US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau welcomed the operation and called Oseguera \u201cone of the bloodiest and most ruthless drug kingpins\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a great development for Mexico, the US, Latin America, and the world,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The US State Department warned Americans in Jalisco, Tamaulipas, Michoacan, Guerrero and Nuevo Leon states to remain in safe places due to the ongoing security operations.<\/p>\n Canada also issued a travel warning for some areas, citing \u201cshootouts with security forces and explosions\u201d in Jalisco, Guerrero and Michoacan states. It warned its citizens in Puerto Vallarta to shelter in place and generally to keep a low profile in Jalisco.<\/p>\n Air Canada announced it was suspending flights to Puerto Vallarta \u201cdue to an ongoing security situation\u201d and advised customers not to go to their airport.<\/p>\n United Airlines \u200cand American Airlines also said they have canceled flight operations to Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara.<\/p>\n The military operation against Oseguera follows a pressure campaign from the Trump administration on Sheinbaum\u2019s government to ramp up its crackdown on drug trafficking, including US threats to intervene directly in Mexico.<\/p>\n The US considers the cartel to be as powerful as the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico\u2019s most infamous criminal groups, with a presence in all 50 US states.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n An ex-police officer and former avocado farmer, Oseguera had been significantly involved in drug trafficking activities since the 1990s.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n After his release, he was deported to Mexico, where he joined the local police. He reengaged in drug trafficking activity with drug lord Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, alias \u201cNacho Coronel\u201d.<\/p>\n After Villarreal\u2019s death, Oseguera and Erik Valencia Salazar, alias \u201cEl 85,\u201d created the Jalisco New Generation Cartel around 2007.<\/p>\n He had built an aura of mystery around himself, drawing on the overwhelming power of the CJNG and his limited media presence: All photos of him were decades old, according to the Spanish newspaper Al Pais.<\/p>\n The FBI has described Oseguera as one of the most wanted fugitives in Mexico, and the CJNG as one of the most violent cartels in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has been assessed to have the highest cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine trafficking capacity in Mexico, and over the past few years, includes the trafficking of fentanyl into the United States,\u201d the FBI said in a 2024 statement.<\/p>\n \u201cUnder Oseguera Cervantes\u2019 leadership, CJNG has been responsible for many homicides against rival trafficking groups and Mexican law enforcement officers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Mexican security forces have killed a drug lord who led one of the most powerful criminal organisations in the country, triggering a wave of violence in several areas, including the western state of Jalisco. The Mexican Secretariat of National Defence said Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, also known as \u201cEl Mencho\u201d, was wounded in a clash […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latin-america-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
\u2018Great development for Mexico\u2019<\/h2>\n
El Mencho and CJNG<\/h2>\n
![\"Damaged](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/DSCF4458-1771800567.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"