‘El Mencho’—How girlfriend, US intelligence led to cartel leader’s death

Mexican soldiers captured and killed a notorious cartel boss after tracking a romantic partner to his hideout, officials have revealed in new details on the operation.

Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho, was one of the Mexican and U.S. government’s most wanted drug lords. He headed up the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of the main groups responsible for trafficking fentanyl into the U.S.

On Sunday, the Mexican army tracked him to the town of Talpalpa, where they launched a dramatic raid on his hideout, killing at least eight other cartel members along with El Mencho in a bloody fight.

Here’s how it unfolded.

From a Lover to a Firefight

On Friday, Mexican forces acted following a tip-off from a trusted associate of one of El Mencho’s romantic partners. They’ve not been named by Mexican authorities for their own safety.

Police then followed El Mencho’s lover to a wooded mountainous area on the outskirts of Tapalpa and the building where the drug kingpin was holed up, the Mexican government said on Monday.

Mexico’s defense minister, General Ricardo Trevilla, said the woman, described as one of El Mencho’s “romantic partners,” was taken to the property in Tapalpa by another associate on Friday, but the woman had departed on Saturday.

The drug boss remained in the area with a security detail while special forces soldiers planned their assault.

The element of surprise was key, Trevilla said. Some of the forces hung back along the border of Jalisco state to avoid detection as ground troops approached the building.

El Mencho’s bodyguards opened fire on the soldiers before the cartel leader and his inner circle fled toward cabins in a wooded area on the outskirts of Tapalpa, Trevilla said. They were found hiding among the undergrowth.

The firefight forced one helicopter to make an emergency landing at a nearby military base, but no personnel were injured, the defense chief said.

El Mencho and two others were gravely injured and evacuated from the scene, but died en route and were ultimately taken to Mexico City rather than Guadalajara, as originally intended.

The U.S. Role

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and her top officials have faced increasing U.S. pressure to crack down on drug trafficking operations across the border.

Much of the fentanyl smuggled into the U.S. comes via Mexico, and President Donald Trump and his administration have shown they are willing to use military force to tackle drug trafficking.

On Monday, U.S. forces killed another three people aboard an alleged drug boat as part of a nearly six-month-long controversial strike campaign in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean.

Shortly after U.S. forces captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and brought him to New York to face narco-terrorism charges in January, Trump had said cartels were “running Mexico” and suggested the U.S. would “start now hitting land with regard to the cartels.”

The White House also designated the CJNG as a foreign terrorist organization last year, giving the U.S. more options for how it could target the cartel.

Sheinbaum quickly rejected U.S. military operations in Mexico without its approval, but increased cooperation on extradition to the U.S.

U.S. and Mexican officials said U.S. intelligence had supported the operation against El Mencho but did not offer up further information.

A joint U.S.-Mexico task force that frequently collaborates with the Mexican military was involved in the operation on Sunday, U.S. media reported, citing anonymous U.S. defense officials. American officials had handed over a dossier of information on El Mencho ahead of the Mexican military operation, an unnamed former U.S. official told Reuters.

Violence Continues

The drug baron’s death after a shoot-out with Mexican forces ignited a massive wave of retaliatory violence and widespread disruption across 20 states.

In Jalisco, armed supporters took to the streets, setting cars and supermarkets on fire, and breaking into buildings. Armed civilians also shut down roads leading into the state, setting up make-shift roadblocks while classes and flights were cancelled.

More than 70 people died in the military operation and the violence that ensued, Mexican officials said, although the country’s security cabinet separately sought to reassure citizens, saying clashes had subsided and roads were operating as normal by Monday afternoon local time.

At least 25 Mexican law enforcement officers have been killed and several thousand additional personnel sent to Jalisco and neighboring states on top of nearly 10,000 soldiers already deployed, according to authorities.

Mexican authorities said a senior cartel member, named as an alleged El Mencho confidant El Tuli, had orchestrated the chaos and offered over $1,000 for the killing of law enforcement personnel and soldiers. El Tuli was killed in clashes with Mexican security forces on Monday after attempting to escape by car from a town southwest of Jalisco’s state capital, Guadalajara.