The CIA provided 'instrumental' information to locate Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, known as "El Mencho," the longtime leader of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), according to a new report.
Citing a U.S. official briefed on the operation, The New York Times detailed that the agency has several ways of collecting information in the country, including human informants, overhead imagery and intercepted communications.
The outlet went on to say that the U.S. has stepped up intelligence-sharing with the country and pressuring it to act on it. Mexican authorities confirmed there was cooperation with the U.S. in the operation.
In a press release detailing how the developments unfolded, the country's Defense Secretariat said that "for the execution of the operation, as well as central military intelligence tasks, within the framework of bilateral coordination and cooperation with the U.S., there was complementary information from the country's authorities."
General Ricardo Trevilla Trejo explained that Mexican forces managed to locate El Mencho after tracking down a lover of his. He said that military intelligence managed to locate a man close to one of El Mencho's lovers, allowing them to determine his location. Once the person left the premise, officers confirmed that El Mencho stayed there. Forces then moved on to detain him, engaging in a shootout with cartel operatives there.
Trevilla Trejo noted that that El Mencho tried to escape while leaving a group of operatives behind to slow down government forces. He made it to a nearby wood, but forces pinned him down and wounded him. El Mencho was taken to a helicopter heading to Mexico City, but he died on the way.
The strike was part of an operation in the mountains of Jalisco and was framed as a major security success for President Claudia Sheinbaum's government.
Oseguera Cervantes rose from local criminal networks into the top tier of Mexico's underworld, becoming the face of CJNG's rapid expansion. The cartel emerged after fractures in earlier organizations, and over time built a reputation for combining sophisticated trafficking with aggressive territorial violence, as well as diversification into other illicit businesses.
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