Mexican authorities returned the body of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” to his family after he was killed by the Mexican army last week, officials said on Saturday. The Attorney General’s Office said in a brief note on X that it handed over the body after completing “all the necessary procedural protocols,” setting out that the release followed required steps.
The Attorney General’s Office said it carried out “Genetic tests … to confirm that there were indeed blood ties between the person who requested the release and the deceased.” The office’s statement did not include additional details about when the tests were completed, but it linked the handover directly to the completion of procedural requirements.
The killing of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader, Mexico’s most powerful drug trafficker, was met with a wave of retaliatory violence that spread across about 20 states, according to the report. The violence killed more than 70 people, adding to fears that the bloodshed could damage Mexico’s tourism outlook ahead of the FIFA World Cup later this year.
David Mora, a senior analyst and Mexico expert at the global think tank International Crisis Group, told AP he did not expect the body handover to trigger further escalation on the same scale. “I don’t think handing over the body to the family is going to recreate the havoc,” Mora said, arguing that the next phase of violence would differ from the immediate backlash.
Mora added that violence that follows the decapitation of the cartel leader could take a different form, pointing to likely shifts within the criminal organization. “The violence that is going to come next is going to play out differently,” he said, describing potential cartel reorganization after the killing and possible turf wars between smaller criminal groups competing for territory and influence.
The U.S. State Department had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to El Mencho’s arrest. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel—run by Oseguera Cervantes—is described as one of the most powerful and fastest growing criminal organizations in Mexico, operating beginning around 2009, the report said.
The killing came as Mexico’s government was seeking to highlight its efforts to crack down on cartels. The report said the Trump administration had designated the Jalisco New Generation Cartel as a foreign terrorist organization in February 2025, and that El Mencho’s death was the Mexican government’s biggest prize yet to show that administration.