Its much more an ecosystem than it is a vertically integrated organization, said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst who writes a well-known column in Mexicos El Universal newspaper. . Ciro Macias Martinez was praised by his supervisor and fellow farmhands alike for his punctuality, work ethicand soothing manner with horses at the breeding and training farm in the heart of Kentucky. Who is El Mencho, the most powerful drug kingpin in the world? Pablo Escobar was a Colombian born drug kingpin who had a peak net worth of $30 billion dollars during his lifetime. There, he built a thriving drug trafficking business, but the city's dominantcartel ordered him to leave when leaders became threatened by his success. From the shadows, he continues to lead CJNG with ruthless authority. During that time,overdoses sent more victims to Kentucky's morgues than bullets and car crashes combined withthe commonwealth sufferingthe fifth-highest overdose death rate in the nation. Histestimony helped convict a trafficker connected to CJNG in 2014. It also operated a tequila label,casinos,two shopping centers,a medical clinic,real estate companies and a Pacific Ocean resort frequented by Americans, according to U.S. Treasury Department records. A VICIOUS drug war between El Chapo's sons and the Jalisco New Generation cartel has seen nearly 250 people slaughtered in a month in Mexico. In September 1992, he was arrested again, this time on federal drug charges in Sacramento, California. In America, Hispanic workers find themselves looked atwith suspicion because of political rhetoric that brands the drug trade and immigration as one and the same, say advocates for those workers. But the extradition of close associate Juan Padilla 'El . December 1, 2021 Today, the U.S. Department of State is announcing a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Juan Carlos Valencia Gonzalez, an alleged high-level member of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG - Jalisco New Generation Cartel). The information leaks make catching El Mencho extremely difficult, he said. In Guanajuato and elsewhere, President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador has debated how to respond to the cartels expansion and the surging violence it has brought. Unlike his reclusive father, the 25-year-old lived in a luxury high-rise apartment in downtown Guadalajara and often stepped out in designer clothes to eat in fancy restaurants. The cartel emerged in 2010, first as an ally of the Sinaloa cartel of Joaqun El Chapo Guzmn, and then, by 2013, as an independent organization trafficking drugs through some of Mexicos central and western states. Last year was the deadliest in Mexicos recent history, with 35,588 homicides. Type of a scam Debt Collections. Around the same time, a rival criminal group known as Los Zetas, with the backing of the Gulf Cartel, carried out an armed offensive against the Milenio Cartel in Michoacn. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known by its Spanish-language acronym, CJNG, is using landmines and explosives-laden drones to kill other gang members, cops and soldiers in a savage. [4][8] He has alternative aliases like "Nemecio", "Rubn Acerguera Cervantes", "Lorenzo Mendoza", and "Nemesio Oseguera Ramos". [26] Internationally, the CJNG reportedly has ties with criminal groups in the U.S., Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel was founded in 2009 by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes ("El Mencho"), who is among the most wanted drug traffickers on the planet after the 2014 arrest of Joaquin . "We consider this cartel to be one of the five most dangerous transnational criminal organizations on the face of the Earth, and it is doing unimaginable damage to the people of this nation," Sessions said. [10][17] To strengthen his relationship with the Milenio Cartel, El Mencho married one of the clan leader's sisters, Rosalinda Gonzlez Valencia. MEXICO CITY -- Mexican authorities have arrested the wife of the leader of Jalisco New Generation, one of the country's fiercest drug cartels. "All intelligence indicates hes still there, moving regularly," said Craine, the retired DEA supervisor who led the successful hunt for El Chapo. [86] He reportedly works as one of his top security chiefs. Officials in Attorney General William Barr's office declined to comment on The Courier Journal's findings. Ransom-seekers and other cartelsare responsible for many of those disappearances,with CJNG to blame for thousands,DEA agentssay. [29] Part of El Mencho's success in the drug trade had to do with his ability to strategize market and consumer changes. Omar Garca Harfuch, Mexico Citys secretary of public security, was shot and injured in an assassination attempt on June 26. . "I still expected that they would be in markets in the Southwest, a little bit into some of the other major corridors, such as Atlanta and Chicago, Evans said. Those who tried to run were tortured, killed and sometimescannibalizedby fellow recruits in what U.S. federal agents describe as a disturbing riteof passage. His second security circle is much larger in size and serves as a rearguard to notify El Mencho's inner circle of suspicious activity and ambush potential parties that attempt to get close to him. But when the days chores were done, Maciasdidn'tsocializewith others over drinks or dinner. El Mencho and his cartel, with more than 5,000 members worldwide, have a clear-cut objective: "They want to control the entire drug market," said Matthew Donahue, who oversees foreign operations for the DEA. [65], On 16 October 2018, the Departments of State, Justice, and Treasury announced a joint law-enforcement measure against the CJNG, and increased El Mencho's bounty to US$10million from US$5million. CJNG wasn't the only cartel in the Bluegrass State in 2017, but authorities say it was the main supplier of fentanyl when Louisville's Adam Cooley, who sought heroin, snorted 20 times alethal dose. With a $10 million reward on his head, hes on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrations Most Wanted list. [87] El Mencho's brother-in-law Elvis Gonzlez Valencia was arrested in 2016 as well. Rubn Oseguera Cervantes aka El Mencho and his wife Rosalinda Gonzlez Valencia have managed to stay under the radar for a long time. [39] On 30 March, CJNG gunmen in Zapopan, Jalisco, ambushed a convoy containing Alejandro Solorio Archiga, Jalisco's security commissioner. Both are now in prison for money laundering, and her sister, who has two children living in Kentucky, faces deportation. The unparalleled speed of CJNGs growth coasttocoast in less than a decade has made the cartel a clear, present and growing danger, says Uttam Dhillon, DEA's acting administrator. He is the most-wanted person in Mexico and one of the most-wanted in the U.S. Adults and children are forced to work in CJNG's crude meth super labs vats on patches of dirt hidden in the jungle. [75] El Cholo was later murdered, with his body being discovered stabbed and wrapped in plastic on a park bench in downtown Tlaquepaque on 18 March 2021. How Mexicos cartel wars shattered American Mormons wary peace, More than 60,000 Mexicans have disappeared amid drug war, officials say. On 1 January 2023, a gang stormed a prison in Ciudad Jurez, Chihuahua, Mexico, resulting in the deaths of 19 people. Oseguera, 30, is known as "Menchito," after his father, Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes, 53, the fugitive leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, considered one of Mexico's. Mexican Army at the border with Guatemala (Photo shared by Guatemala's Army official Twitter) Alleged members of Mexico's ruthless Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known . The unending stream of narcotics has contributed to this countrys unprecedented addiction crisis, devastating families and killing more than 300,000 people since 2013. Initial reports stated that El Mencho was captured in the operation, but the Mexican government later confirmed that he was not in custody. American authorities are still seeking his extradition to the U.S. to face drug charges. Hearing more details, the investigator, who asked not to be identified to protect his work, acknowledged to The Courier Journal: "Its a great strategy.". Then the group sent three dozen men armed with military-grade weapons into one of the countrys most exclusive neighborhoods, authorities say, to kill the capitals top security official. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. As a young adult, he and his older brother, Abraham Oseguera Cervantes,sold heroin to two undercover police officers at a San Francisco bar in 1992 and were sent to federal prison on drug trafficking charges. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) is thought to be responsible for a video which began circulating on social media last week, showing a number of masked men standing in front of the camera while holding guns. [60] In addition, the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas is looking to convict El Mencho for drug trafficking offenses. Julio Alex Diaz. These are young people who were engaged in other types of crimes such as petty theft, and then suddenly we see them at incidents related to organized crime, said Pedro Alberto Corts Zavala, the secretary of security in the municipality of Irapuato, Guanajuato state. In Mexico, El Mencho is a household name. He was released from prison on several occasions for lack of evidence, but was re-arrested each time by the police for additional charges. In Jalisco, El Mencho and the Milenio Cartel formed an alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel subgroup headed by Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, a high-ranking drug lord and ally of Joaqun "El Chapo" Guzmn. "Once the cartel brings a huge load across (the border) and throws it out there for everyone to sell, its out of their hands. But Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador declined Trump's offer for U.S. troops, saying his country doesn't need help. [101], In February 2022, there were unconfirmed reports stating that El Mencho had died from respiratory arrest while undergoing treatment in a private hospital in Guadalajara. The direct attacks of the CJNG against Mexico's security forces earned El Mencho a reputation among authorities as "principal enemy" of the state and as a dangerous criminal. Make no mistake, Taylor said. In cases in which immigrants resist the cartel's offer, CJNG members often threatened violence to them or their loved ones back in Mexico, according to court cases and law enforcement officials. At the site of the assassination attempt against Garca Harfuch in Mexico Citys tony Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood, the police recovered Barrett semiautomatic rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. His name was Pablo Oseguera. As the security forces moved to the area where El Mencho was allegedly hiding, a gunfight broke out between law enforcement officials and gunmen of the CJNG. [35] The purpose of the burning vehicles was to place them as blockades to impede the security forces from traveling across Jalisco's capital and giving El Mencho ample time to escape.