The Raid That Brought Down Mexicos Top Drug Lord

Mexican soldiers and federal police approached a gated compound, searching for a man they had hunted for years. Their orders were to capture him, if possible. When they entered the property, security guards opened fire and a fierce gun battle followed. When the shooting stopped, the target lay dead and three of his bodyguards were mortally wounded. For years, Mexican and American authorities had searched for this man, the leader of one of the most violent criminal organizations in modern Mexico. His name was Nemesio Osguera Cervantes, better known as El Mencho, the powerful head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Who was El Mencho? What were his crimes? Why was he wanted for so long? How was he located? Hello, I'm Colin Heaton, former history professor, Army and Marine Corps veteran, and welcome to this episode of Forgotten History. The beginning of the toughest 26 days in Marine Corps history. With confidence in our arms. The 36th president of the United States died this afternoon. Tell them there are children and women in here to call it off. Nemesio Ruben Osguera Cervantes was born on July 17, 1966 in the rural community of Culotatlan in Aguila, Michoacan. He grew up in extreme poverty alongside five brothers as their family worked small avocado fields. Nemesio left school in the fifth grade to help support the household, but by age 14, he was already guarding marijuana plantations. Within a few years, he crossed illegally into California, beginning the path that would eventually lead him into the world of organized crime. In 1986, he was arrested in San Francisco at age 19 for theft and carrying a loaded firearm. After serving time in jail, he was deported to Mexico, but investigators believe that during this period he became involved in methamphetamine production in Redwood City with his brother-in-law, Abigail Gonzalez Valencia, known as El Queenie. By then, he was already using the alias El Mencho and another nickname, the Lord of the Roosters, a reference to his passion for cockfighting. To avoid detection in the United States, he also used several false identities, including Ruben Avila, Jose Lopez Prieto, Miguel Valadez, Carlos Hernandez Mendoza, and Roberto Salgado. He returned illegally to the United States in 1989, was arrested again in San Francisco for selling narcotics, and deported once more. After re-entering the country again, he continued operating in California until September 1992, when he and his brother, Abraham, were both arrested in Sacramento during a heroin transaction. Oseguera pleaded guilty so that Abraham, who already had prior felony drug convictions, would not face a possible life sentence. He received a five-year sentence and was sent to the Big Spring Correctional Center in Texas, though he was released after three years and deported again. Abraham received a ten-year sentence in California. Years later, in 2013, Mexican authorities accused Abraham of murder in Michoacán, though those charges were later dropped and the case closed. After returning to Mexico, Oseguera El Mencho briefly joined the local police forces in Cabo Corrientes and Tomatlan in the state of Jalisco. The job did not last long. He soon left law enforcement and entered organized crime as a member of the Millenio Cartel. His position inside the organization strengthened when he married Rosalinda Gonzalez Valencia, sister of cartel figure Abigail Gonzalez Valencia. Oseguera eventually became the leader of an assassination squad that protected the drug lord Armando Valencia Cornelio, known as El Maradona, targeting rival traffickers and hostile police. He later relocated to Guadalajara with members of the Gonzalez Valencia family. There, the Millenio Cartel formed a working alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel faction, led by Ignacio Nacho Coronel, a powerful lieutenant of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman. Under this partnership, Oseguera and his group managed drug operations, finances, and enforcement activities for the Sinaloa network across parts of western Mexico. In the late 2000s, U.S. investigators were already tracking the organization's growing drug trafficking network. According to DEA investigations, shipments moved cocaine from South America through Mexico and into the United States through multiple routes that included Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Central America. But the power structure of the Millenio Cartel soon began to unravel. On October 28, 2009, authorities arrested its top leader, Oscar Orlando Nava Valencia, known as El Lobo. His brother, Juan Carlos Valencia, called El Tigre, was captured in May 2010. Only weeks later, Ignacio Nacho Coronel was killed during a shootout with the Mexican army. With his leadership gone, the Millenio Cartel began to fracture. Within the collapsing organization, a struggle for control quickly emerged. Erick Valencia Salazar supported Oseguera as the new leader, but rival factions resisted. When Oseguera el Mencho demanded that other factions surrender Gerardo Mendoza, accused of killing several of his men in Tecomán, that demand was rejected. The dispute triggered an Oseguera responded with a propaganda campaign against rival gangs, accusing them of extorting civilians and businesses while portraying his group as a protector of the population. His faction became known as Los Metazetas. After defeating its rivals and consolidating control across western Mexico, the group adopted a new name that would soon become infamous, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. El Mencho's reputation as a cop killer made him a principal enemy of the Mexican state. As several older cartel leaders were captured or killed, his power and influence continued to grow. By 2013, investigators were still intercepting shipments tied to his organization, moving drugs from Mexico into the United States. In 2014, the DEA detected a shift in the CJNG's trafficking strategy. Methamphetamine was being moved from Mexico to Australia and then into the United States through partnerships with Chinese criminal networks. At the same time, the cartel was losing ground in Mexico City, and El Mencho responded with a series of violent attacks designed to reassert his authority. On March 19, 2015, CJNG gunmen ambushed a federal police convoy in Ocatlan, Jalisco, killing five officers and three civilians. Only weeks later, on April 6, cartel gunmen blocked a road in San Sebastian del Oeste with a burning vehicle and attacked a Jalisco state police convoy, killing 15 officers and wounding several more. The same day, the police chief of Zucocalco de Torres, Miguel Angel Casado Vargas, was assassinated. The violence escalated further in the nearby town of Villa Purificacion. CJNG fighters shot down a Mexican Army helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade, killing nine soldiers. The battle spread across the region as cartel gunmen blocked highways and set fires to buses, banks, and gas stations to slow the military response and allow El Mencho to escape. By 2019, El Mencho had become one of the most wanted fugitives in the world. Kyle Morey, who led the DEA task force hunting him, estimated in an interview that his criminal empire could be worth between $500 million and $1 billion. Both the United States and Mexican governments offered rewards of up to $15 million for information leading to his capture. United States issued federal indictments against Oseguera through DEA investigations, charging him with international drug trafficking, manufacturing and distributing methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl, operating a criminal enterprise, and trafficking firearms, including military-grade weapons. Mexican authorities filed parallel charges that included corruption, intimidation, extortion, kidnapping, murder of public officials, destruction of property, and theft of petroleum shipments. But capturing El Mencho proved difficult. Unlike figures such as Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, he maintained a low public profile. His organization was also operated through a decentralized structure. While leadership remained centralized, operational cells were spread across the country and controlled by regional commanders who handled local trafficking, enforcement, and corruption. When one cell was captured or destroyed, the others continued operating. CJNG units were heavily armed and operated with military-style coordination. Fighters used armored vehicles, military-grade weapons, and carefully planned ambush tactics. One common method was the L-shaped ambush, where attackers struck the first and last vehicles in a convoy before concentrating fire on the trapped units. The cartel also relied on an extensive intelligence network of civilian informants and corrupt officials inside police and military institutions. By absorbing smaller criminal groups and allowing regional bosses to operate semi-autonomously under the CJNG banner, the organization created the layered structure that made it far more difficult for authorities to dismantle. But there were cracks in the protective layers surrounding El Mencho. The facts are not totally clear, but it appears that U.S. human and electronic intelligence managed to track his location. In some yet-to-be-verified reports, El Mencho had a planted informant, whether Mexican or American is unknown, who supplied the codes to crack their in-depth and layered communications system, which allowed the authorities to monitor radio traffic and El Mencho's movements. The Maduro regime sending Chundey Aragua crime gangs into the U.S. during the Biden administration's open border period offered a far more reaching distribution network, resulting in deaths by overdose and violence against rivals. The arrest of many of During the second presidency of Donald Trump, El Mencho was sanctioned and formally classified as a specially designated global terrorist in response to the severity of his activities related to the fentanyl crisis and extreme violence in Mexico. This action follows the recent designation of the CJNG as a foreign terrorist organization. On February 22, 2026, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, or El Mencho, was seriously wounded during a Mexican military operation in Tapapa, Jalisco, and died from his gunshot wounds while being transported to Mexico City. The operation, aided by U.S. intelligence, triggered widespread retaliation by the CJNG across multiple states, including road blockades, vehicle fires, and armed clashes that killed at least 25 National Guard members and dozens of civilians. The official account of the operation was later described by Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla, who stated that Oseguera and two body guards had been gravely wounded in a firefight with Mexican soldiers outside a residence in Tapapa. All three died while being transported for medical treatment. Authorities later confirmed that Oseguera had been buried in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara, reportedly in a gold coffin. While figures such as Joaquin, El Chapo, Guzman, and El Mencho may be gone, the cartels they helped build still control large territories and trafficking routes, but what finally enabled such a direct strike against one of Mexico's most powerful criminal organizations? One explanation is that Mexican authorities had finally concentrated enough intelligence and military resources to conduct a decisive operation. Another possibility involves political pressure at the highest levels of government. Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum Pardo had recently faced increasing demands to confront the cartels more aggressively. The successful operation against El Mencho may have reflected a decision that confronted the CJNG directly, which was preferable to allowing the cartels power to continue expanding. Either way, the operation marked one of the most significant blows against organized crime in Mexico in decades. Thank you for watching this episode of Forgotten History. If you liked what you saw, please click like, share, and subscribe. And, if you would like to assist with the ever increasing cost of production, please consider becoming a channel member and joining our Patreon page.