El Mencho: Ex-police officer who ruled Mexico’s illicit drug kingdom

BY ORIAKU IJELE

Mexico is currently experiencing a wave of violence as members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of the most powerful and feared criminal organisations in Mexico, have unleashed a wave of violence across 20 Mexican states.

They torched businesses and erected burning blockades in retaliation to the killing of their leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, better known as “El Mencho”, who died in custody on Sunday shortly after being captured by Mexican special forces.

El Mencho, Mexico’s most wanted man, was seriously injured in a firefight between his bodyguards and the military commandos deployed to capture him.

He died while the military was transporting him from the town of Tapalpa, in Jalisco state, to the capital, Mexico City.

But who was Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes aka ‘El Mencho,’? He stood as one of the most elusive and powerful figures in the history of organised crime. As the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), he transformed a splinter group into a global criminal empire, fundamentally altering the landscape of the Mexican drug trade through unprecedented violence and tactical sophistication.

Born in 1966 in the rural reaches of Michoacán, Oseguera Cervantes’ early life followed a path of poverty common to many future traffickers. After dropping out of primary school, he worked in avocado fields before migrating to the United States in the 1980s. His time in America was marked by several arrests for drug dealing, eventually leading to his deportation.

Upon returning to Mexico, El Mencho briefly served as a police officer—a common irony in the biographies of cartel leaders—before joining the Milenio Cartel. Following the death of Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel, a key Sinaloa Cartel lieutenant, the Milenio group fractured. El Mencho seized the opportunity, forming the CJNG. Unlike the older generation of traffickers who preferred “plata o plomo” (silver or lead), El Mencho leaned heavily into the “lead,” using military-grade weaponry and propaganda to seize territory from rivals like the Zetas and the Sinaloa Cartel.

Estimating the net worth of a fugitive is an exercise in speculation, but the U.S. government has consistently placed El Mencho’s personal wealth in the billions of dollars. Under his leadership, the CJNG became a diversified multinational corporation. While they trade in cocaine and marijuana, their “golden goose” is synthetic drugs.

Fentanyl and Methamphetamine: By controlling the ports of Lázaro Cárdenas and Manzanillo, El Mencho secured the precursor chemicals needed to mass-produce synthetics with higher profit margins than plant-based drugs.

Global Reach: The CJNG’s operations span across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Money Laundering: His wealth is shielded by a complex web of legitimate businesses, including shopping centers, real estate firms, and even agricultural ventures.

In recent years, intelligence reports and “narcocorridos” (drug ballads) have suggested that El Mencho suffered from severe kidney disease, requiring constant dialysis. This health crisis led to rumors in 2022 and 2023 that he had passed away from natural causes in a private hospital or a mountain hideout.

El Mencho’s impact is undeniable. He pioneered the use of social media for psychological warfare and moved the cartel model away from traditional smuggling toward high-tech, paramilitary insurgency. He remains a symbol of the enduring challenge of the global drug war—a man who turned shadow and brutality into a multi-billion dollar legacy.