He had eluded soldiers, bounty hunters and intelligence agencies for years—keeping such a low profile that the only known photographs of him were decades old. But for Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, better known as 'El Mencho', it was not a rival cartel or a government informant that sealed his fate. It was a woman. Mexican and US authorities tracked one of his romantic partners to a secluded mountain compound in Tapalpa, Jalisco, leading special forces directly to the most wanted drug lord in Mexico—and ending his reign over the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG.
Mexico's Defence Secretary, Gen Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, confirmed at a Monday press conference that intelligence officers had identified a man close to one of Oseguera Cervantes' girlfriends before the Sunday raid. That lead placed the woman in Tapalpa—a mountainside resort town in Jalisco—where the 59-year-old cartel boss and his armed entourage were holed up. Once the woman departed the compound, the military moved in.
