Mexican forces killed Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho”, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (JNGC), in a high-risk operation in the western state of Jalisco on Sunday.
Security forces tracked El Mencho, one of the United States’s most wanted fugitives, to a property in the mountain town of Tapalpa, central-western Mexico, after receiving intelligence linked to a close associate.
Troops launched a predawn raid on Sunday, triggering hours of gun battles and a wave of violence across several states.
The killing marks the most significant blow against organised crime since Mexican and US authorities recaptured Joaquin Guzman, known as “El Chapo”, nearly a decade ago.
El Mencho, 59, was believed to be a former police officer. He was from Michoacan, western Mexico, and built a vast criminal enterprise over more than 30 years.
US authorities convicted him of heroin trafficking in the mid-1990s, and he served a prison sentence in the US before returning to Mexico, where he rose rapidly within the drug underworld.
Around 2009, he founded the JNGC, which expanded rapidly to become one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent cartels.
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