Mexican authorities said they killed Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader known as “El Mencho,” in a Sunday special forces operation in Jalisco that began after investigators monitored his romantic partner, according to Gen. Ricardo Trevilla. Trevilla said the operation relied on U.S. intelligence information and culminated after special forces tracked Oseguera Cervantes and confronted an armed group that met the raid with heavy fire.
Trevilla said the armed forces operation was triggered when investigators identified and began following a trusted associate of one of Oseguera Cervantes’ romantic partners, and when additional information from U.S. intelligence helped confirm his location. He said the partner associate escorted the woman to Tapalpa, Jalisco, on Friday for a meeting with the drug lord, and that once the woman left after spending the night, special forces finalized plans based on confirmation that Oseguera Cervantes was staying in the area with a security detail.
Units from the Mexican army and the National Guard established a ground cordon in the Tapalpa area, while six helicopters and additional special forces were positioned in states bordering Jalisco, Trevilla said. He said the Mexican Air Force provided reconnaissance and aircraft support, and that the mission began in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday after his presence was confirmed; Trevilla added that President Claudia Sheinbaum was kept informed of developments during a tour in northern Mexico.
Trevilla said the confrontation was extremely violent and described Oseguera Cervantes attempting to flee with two bodyguards while a heavily armed group remained behind to slow the advance. He said eight gunmen were killed at the scene, and that figure was four more than the initial report on Sunday; he also said the raid left Oseguera Cervantes and two bodyguards wounded and that the wounded were taken into custody.
Trevilla said Oseguera Cervantes tried to take cover in a wooded area dotted with cabins on the outskirts of Tapalpa, and that special forces later located him “hidden in the undergrowth,” which led to another intense confrontation. He said the armed group’s weaponry included two rocket launchers, one described as identical to a model used by the CJNG in 2015 to down a military helicopter, and he said that despite the cartel’s firepower, the attackers did not manage to deploy the rocket launchers during the raid.
Trevilla said a military helicopter was forced into an emergency landing after being struck by gunfire, and that two individuals were apprehended at the scene, while three soldiers were injured. He said Oseguera Cervantes and the two bodyguards were then loaded onto a helicopter for emergency transport to a nearby hospital, but that they died en route; Trevilla said they were already in “critical condition” and that the flight plan was redirected to Mexico City to preempt possible retaliation.
According to Trevilla, violence linked to the operation killed more than 70 people, including security forces and suspected cartel members, with the heaviest violence in Jalisco. Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said 25 National Guard members, a prison official, a prosecutor’s office employee and a presumed civilian woman were killed in Jalisco, along with 30 suspected criminals; he said four more gunmen died in Michoacán while 15 security personnel were wounded.
Trevilla said that a paratrooper rifle brigade tracked down the logistics and financial operator described as “El Tuli” and killed him in a shootout, seizing long and short firearms and nearly $1.4 million in mixed U.S. and Mexican currency. He said “El Tuli” reportedly offered gunmen a bounty of 20,000 pesos—more than $1,000—for every soldier killed and that the defense minister described “El Tuli,” allegedly Oseguera’s right-hand man, as the mastermind of roadblocks, arson attacks and assaults on government installations across Jalisco.
The raid and the violence that followed have been reported as part of a broader security sweep targeting the CJNG leader, after MSI previously covered related reports of the killing and the subsequent violence. MSI previously reported that the killing of El Mencho sparked violence.