Mexican drug cartel boss Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera Cervantes, the powerful leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was tracked and killed by authorities on Sunday with the help of his girlfriend, AFP reported.
Mexican authorities acted after a girlfriend of El Mencho led them to his safe house in Tapalpa, a picturesque mountain town.
The ‘romantic partner’
Mexican military intelligence agents, supported by the US military’s Northern Command, learned that a romantic partner planned to rendezvous with the drug lord in Tapalpa, some 130 kilometres from Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco state. She was escorted to the house by a trusted associate.
Mexican Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla said at a press conference Monday that the woman, “one of the romantic partners of ‘El Mencho,'” was brought to a house in Tapalpa by a trusted associate.
On Saturday, she met with Oseguera and then left, leaving Oseguera in the house with his security detail, Trevilla explained, as per AFP.
The National Guard’s Special Immediate Reaction Force blueprinted the operation for the assault on Sunday with both land and air manoeuvres.
The soldiers approached the area without entering Jalisco “to keep the secret and thus retain the element of surprise,” Trevilla said.
Once they confirmed the presence of Oseguera, who was wanted for organised crime and weapons possession, they raided the ranch.
The violence
“Honestly, it was a pretty violent attack,” Trevilla said on Monday. Oseguera possessed an arsenal that included assault weapons and two rocket launchers.
The cartel leader and two bodyguards fled into a wooded area but were seriously wounded in a firefight. They were taken into custody and died on the way to Mexico City, Trevilla said.
In a different location in Jalisco, soldiers killed another high-ranking cartel member, who Trevilla said was coordinating violence and offering more than $1,000 for every soldier killed.
The 59-year-old cartel leader, whose real name is Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, died after a shootout with the Mexican military.
The dead included 25 members of the Mexican National Guard who were killed in six separate attacks, Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said.
As the threat of more violence loomed, several Mexican states cancelled school on Monday, while local and foreign governments warned their citizens to stay inside.
The White House confirmed that the US provided intelligence support to the operation to capture the cartel leader and applauded Mexico’s army for taking down a man who was one of the most wanted criminals in both countries.
Mexico hoped the death of the world’s biggest fentanyl traffickers would ease Trump administration pressure to do more against the cartels, but many people were anxious as they waited to see the powerful cartel’s reaction.
(With inputs from agencies AP, AFP)
