Developing: Death of 'El Mencho' — Mexico's Most Wanted Drug Lord Killed in Military Raid, Triggering Nationwide Cartel Violence

Mexican special forces from the army, National Guard rapid-reaction units, and Air Force launched the operation targeting El Mencho in Tapalpa, a town roughly 80 miles southwest of Guadalajara in Jalisco's Sierra Madre mountain range. According to Mexico's Defense Ministry, troops came under fire during the attempt to capture the drug lord, and a fierce gunfight ensued between his bodyguards and the military commandos.

Four cartel members were killed at the scene, while El Mencho and two others were wounded and later died while being airlifted to Mexico City. At least six of El Mencho's security guards were killed in total. On the government side, three soldiers were initially reported injured, but a Jalisco state official later told the Associated Press that casualties were far more extensive: a National Guard member died in Tapalpa, six more were killed in Zapopan, a jail guard was killed during a prison riot in Puerto Vallarta, and an agent from the Jalisco state prosecutor's office was killed in Guadalajara.

During the raid, authorities seized a trove of military-grade weaponry — including armored vehicles and rocket launchers capable of downing aircraft and destroying armored vehicles. The seizure underscored what former U.S. officials have long warned: that CJNG operates less like a traditional trafficking ring and more like a paramilitary organization. The Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel, a U.S. intelligence unit quietly launched late last year to map cartel networks on both sides of the border, played a role in providing the "complementary information" that made the operation possible, according to a U.S. defense official.

Within hours of El Mencho's death, CJNG members launched a coordinated campaign of violence and intimidation across more than 250 locations in 20 Mexican states, from Guerrero on the Pacific coast to Tamaulipas in the northeast. In cities and towns where the cartel holds influence, gunmen commandeered buses, trucks, and cars, dousing them in gasoline and setting them ablaze in the middle of roads. Banks, pharmacies, and local businesses — including roughly 20 branches of the state-run Banco del Bienestar — were torched or ransacked.

Some of the worst scenes unfolded in Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city and a host venue for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Panicked travelers at the international airport sprinted for cover and crouched behind chairs after hearing gunshots from a nearby highway. Armed men were filmed setting fire to a petrol station in the heart of the city. By Sunday night, Guadalajara had become a ghost town as residents hunkered down indoors. In the popular Pacific beach resort of Puerto Vallarta, tourists were ordered to shelter in place as black smoke from burning vehicles billowed across the skyline. Around 300 visitors were stranded at the airport after flights were cancelled, and were eventually transferred to the city center under heavy police escort. Air Canada suspended all flights to Puerto Vallarta, and multiple U.S. carriers cancelled routes.

American tourists caught in the chaos described harrowing scenes to multiple outlets. Eugene Marchenko, 37, of Charleston, South Carolina, told Fox News Digital he woke to blaring horns and watched six cars engulfed in flames from his Airbnb balcony, along with a fuel tanker. He said he later witnessed pharmacies and stores burned to the ground, while looters broke into nearby buildings. Another visitor told Fox News they had to call home to tell family members where to find their will. The U.S. State Department issued shelter-in-place advisories for Americans in Jalisco, Tamaulipas, Michoacán, Guerrero, Nuevo León, and other affected states. Mexican authorities in Jalisco declared a "code red," halting public transport and cancelling school on Monday in several states.

Born in rural Aguililla, in the state of Michoacán, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes grew up in poverty before migrating illegally to the United States in the 1980s, where he was eventually convicted of conspiracy to distribute heroin in a California federal court in 1994 and served nearly three years in prison. Deported back to Mexico at age 30, he threw himself into cartel activity, working for the Milenio Cartel and building a reputation as a calculating and brutal operator.

When the Milenio Cartel fractured, El Mencho seized the moment. Around 2007–2009, he co-founded the Jalisco New Generation Cartel with Érick Valencia Salazar, known as "El 85." Under El Mencho's leadership, CJNG grew from a regional outfit into what the DEA now considers one of the most powerful criminal organizations on the planet — with the highest cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine trafficking capacity in Mexico, and in recent years, a massive role in funneling fentanyl into the United States. The cartel expanded aggressively into extortion, fuel theft, and human trafficking.

Unlike Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, who cultivated a public persona and even enlisted Sean Penn's help for a Hollywood project, El Mencho preferred the shadows. Few photographs of him exist. But his cartel's violence was anything but subtle: CJNG is known for launching explosives from drones, planting mines, and in 2015, using a rocket-propelled grenade to shoot down a Mexican military helicopter — a brazen attack that fundamentally changed how the government assessed the group's capabilities. In 2020, it attempted to assassinate Mexico City's police chief with grenades and high-powered rifles. Security specialist Eduardo Guerrero described the cartel in 2021 as possessing "huge amounts of money, the latest generation weapons, military-style paramilitary groups and vehicles" — a force capable of overwhelming local police in any small or mid-sized city.

El Mencho's killing arrives at a critical juncture in U.S.-Mexico relations. President Donald Trump has spent months pressuring Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to intensify the crackdown on drug cartels, threatening additional tariffs and even unilateral military action — including drone strikes and "boots on the ground" — if Mexico failed to deliver results. In February 2025, the Trump administration designated the Jalisco New Generation Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Both governments moved quickly to frame the operation as a triumph of bilateral cooperation. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the U.S. had provided intelligence support and described El Mencho as "a top target for the Mexican and United States government as one of the top traffickers of fentanyl into our homeland." U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau wrote on X that the killing was "a great development for Mexico, the US, Latin America, and the world." U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson stated that "under the leadership of President Trump and President Sheinbaum, bilateral cooperation has reached unprecedented levels."

For Mexico, the operation carries enormous diplomatic stakes. David Mora, Mexico analyst for the International Crisis Group, told NPR that the raid signals to Washington that "if we keep cooperating, sharing intelligence, Mexico can do it — we don't need U.S. troops on Mexican soil." President Sheinbaum, who has previously criticized the "kingpin strategy" of previous administrations for triggering cascading violence, will nonetheless hope El Mencho's elimination staves off further talk of unilateral American military operations in Mexico. Whether that calculation proves correct may depend on what happens in the weeks ahead — both on the streets of Mexico and at the negotiating table.

The central question confronting both governments — and millions of ordinary Mexicans — is what El Mencho's death means for the future of organized crime in the country. History offers sobering lessons. The capture and extradition of Sinaloa Cartel founder Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán did not destroy his organization; instead, it triggered a vicious internal war that eventually fractured the cartel. It was precisely this power vacuum that allowed El Mencho's CJNG to surge, absorbing an important share of the fentanyl trade as the Sinaloa Cartel imploded.

Mike Vigil, former DEA Chief of International Operations, described the operation to CBS as "one of the most significant actions undertaken in the history of drug trafficking" and urged Mexico and the U.S. to seize the moment for "an effective frontal assault based on intelligence." He warned that El Mencho "controlled everything — he was like a country's dictator," and that his absence could initially slow the cartel's growth. But analysts caution that CJNG, like other major cartels, has well-placed lieutenants ready to step into leadership roles.

David Mora of the International Crisis Group warned that the blow could also invite rival organizations to exploit CJNG's vulnerability. "This might be a moment in which those other groups see that the cartel is weakened and want to seize the opportunity to expand control," he told NPR. Security analyst Gerardo Rodriguez told AFP that authorities had anticipated some cartel reaction but were surprised by its "national reach" — a testament to just how deeply CJNG had embedded itself across Mexico. With El Mencho's son, Rubén "El Menchito" Oseguera González, already convicted of drug trafficking charges in a U.S. federal court, the question of succession remains dangerously unresolved. The CJNG's presence in at least 21 of Mexico's 32 states — and across all 50 U.S. states — means the consequences of any fragmentation could be felt far beyond Mexico's borders.