Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was killed Sunday after being wounded in a Mexican military operation to capture him in Tapalpa, Jalisco, The Associated Press reported.
Violence ensued around the country, including vehicles burned throughout various states. The U.S. State Department issued a security alert for any United States citizens in the country to “shelter in place until further notice.”
Oseguera Cervantes, 59, was one of the most powerful drug cartel leaders in the country and was one of the United States’ most wanted. His ties to the organized crime and drug world have spanned over three decades, as the AP reported.
He was tried in 1994 and sent to three years in prison for heroin trafficking in the United States. Upon returning to Mexico, he rose in the ranks of the drug trafficking world, eventually starting the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in 2009, The Associated Press reported.
Oseguera Cervantes’ death signals movement in the Mexican government’s response to pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration to clean up drug trafficking in the country. In February 2025, the Trump administration designated the Jalisco New Generation Cartel as “a foreign terrorist organization.”
Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X Sunday signaling the collaboration of intel in assisting the operation in Mexico.
“The United States provided intelligence support to the Mexican government in order to assist with an operation in Talpalpa, Jalisco, Mexico, in which Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera Cervantes, an infamous drug lord and leader within the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was eliminated,” she wrote. “‘El Mencho’ was a top target for the Mexican and United States government as one of the top traffickers of fentanyl into our homeland.”
According to The Associated Press, the killing of “El Mencho” is the “highest-profile blow against cartels” since 2016 and the recapture of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the Sinaloa cartel boss.