El Mencho, real name Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, led the Jalisco New Generation Cartel until his death by the Mexican military on Sunday. The massive drug raids led to widespread violence in some regions of Mexico.
Nearly three dozen criminals were killed in the operation and ensuing clashes across the country afterwards. Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said the National Guard lost 25 members, and one civilian was also killed.
What is Jalisco New Generation Cartel?
The Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), as it is known in Spanish, founded in 2009, is a transnational criminal group. Oseguera, 59, was a founding member.
With an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 members, the cartel mainly operates “throughout Mexico, with strongholds in Jalisco, Nayarit, and Colima,” according to the US Counterterrorism Guide.
The CJNG is notorious for its aggressive violence and public relations campaigns. Despite the capture of certain top leaders, it remains one of Mexico’s foremost criminal threats and appears set to continue expanding, Insight Crime reported.
The Jalisco Cartel New Generation emerged from the remnants of the Sinaloa Cartel-affiliated Milenio Cartel, the US Drug Enforcement Administration says, and has grown into one of Mexico’s most violent crime organisations.
The CJNG split from the Sinaloa Cartel in 2010 and has expanded across Mexico since 2018, the US Counterterrorism guide claimed. As of 2025, the CJNG is the main competitor to the Sinaloa Cartel.
US classifies CJNG as ‘terrorist organisation’
Washington classified the Jalisco Cartel New Generation as a terrorist organisation and accused it of sending cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl into the United States.
“The US State Department designated CJNG as a foreign terrorist organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity in February 2025,” the Counterterrorism Guide says.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the US says that the CJNG “is a key supplier of illicit fentanyl to the United States, and one of Mexico’s most powerful, influential, and ruthless transnational criminal organisations.”
It said CJNG has “become independent from key members linked by blood ties or marriage to the Gonzalez-Valencia money laundering organization, known as Los Cuinis.”
CJNG’s finance
The US Department claims that CJNG, like the Sinaloa Cartel, reaps billions of dollars in profit from the manufacture of illegal synthetic drugs, as well as being one of the main suppliers of cocaine to the US market.
Additionally, the Counterterrorism Guide says that the CJNG’s criminal activities generate billions of dollars annually.
The group traffics drugs to the United States, Australia, and Canada, as well as to many countries in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and Europe.
It adds that CJNG’s de facto control of the Port of Manzanillo in Colima, Mexico, allows the group to import precursor chemicals to produce fentanyl and methamphetamine.
CJNG also profits from extortion, fuel theft, kidnapping, illegal logging and mining, migrant smuggling, and timeshare fraud, it says.
It is alleged that this group and other CJNG factions use Chinese Money Laundering Networks (CMLNs), cryptocurrency exchanges, bulk cash smuggling, trade-based money laundering, and other methods to launder illicit drug-related proceeds.
According to the Insight Crime report, Rosalinda González Valencia, El Mencho’s wife and primary confidant, was considered the group’s chief financial operator and one of its highest-ranking members under El Mencho.
She and several of her brothers founded the criminal group known as the Cuinis, which is reportedly still responsible for much of the CJNG’s finances and money laundering operations, despite González’s arrest in November 2021.
CJNG leadership, work style
Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, aka El Mencho, was the co-founder of CJNG. The Mexican military killed him in a federal operation on Sunday.
The Counterterrorism Guide claims that the CJNG has a “hierarchical command structure” in which regional leaders manage day-to-day operations for the group’s founder and overall leader, Rubén Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, a.k.a. El Mencho.
CJNG uses a franchise model—an affiliation agreement between smaller, local cartels and CJNG — to facilitate expansion outside its strongholds in Jalisco, Nayarit, and Colima, the US says.
Since 2017, Oseguera Cervantes has been indicted several times in the United States for drug trafficking, the DEA said.
In April 2022, the DEA charged Oseguera Cervantes with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise; conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine, cocaine, and fentanyl for importation into the United States; and use of a firearm during and in relation to drug trafficking crimes.
The US had declared him a fugitive and announced a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest and/or prosecution of El Mencho.
