Mexico’s underworld could experience far-reaching changes after the killing of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho,” the leader of the Jalisco Cartel and the country’s most-wanted criminal.
On February 22, a Mexican army special forces unit located El Mencho in the rural municipality of Tapalpa, according to an official statement. During a firefight, eight Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG) members were killed and several others gravely wounded, among them El Mencho. Mexican authorities said the crime boss later died while being transported to Mexico City for medical treatment.
Hundreds of narco-blockades and roadblocks were reported across 20 different Mexican states following the high-profile killing, including in Baja California, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Michoacán, and Tamaulipas. Mexican authorities said that the operation left 62 dead, including 25 National Guard members, and 70 arrested.
SEE ALSO: El Mencho Criminal Profile
El Mencho was the most wanted criminal leader on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Under his command over the last decade, the CJNG shot down a Mexican military helicopter and carried out a brazen assassination attempt on Omar García Harfuch, then Mexico City’s police chief and now Mexico’s nationwide security chief. The US State Department put a $15 million bounty on El Mencho’s head for information leading to his capture.
But even with El Mencho dead, the CJNG will remain.
How Is the CJNG Structured?
With El Mencho at the top, the CJNG was more vertically integrated than other Mexican criminal networks. High-ranking CJNG members who reported directly to him were, for example, allegedly involved in brokering an alliance with the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel last year to battle a rival faction known as the Mayiza in the state of Sinaloa.
That said, the group maintains a franchise-style structure with different semi-autonomous regional factions that maintain alliances with local criminal actors to manage control of drug production and trafficking, extortion rackets, and fuel theft, among other criminal economies.
SEE ALSO: How Mexico’s CJNG Controls Guadalajara’s Expanding Drug Market
This strategy has allowed the CJNG to expand into nearly every corner of Mexico, and it also helped them establish their own local systems of criminal governance. The territorial and social control this system creates has fostered the CJNG’s infiltration of local politics and judicial systems as well as the security forces and major legal economic sectors.
As with other high-profile captures or killings, El Mencho’s removal is unlikely to spell the end of the CJNG, which had been operating for several years with him largely in the shadows as he evaded arrest.
CJNG Succession Starts Now
Due to the size and reach of the CJNG, there is a high likelihood of fragmentation within the group and a fierce power struggle that could lead to increased violence in several parts of the country.
For now, it remains to be seen whether El Mencho was able to establish a clear line of succession within the CJNG.
But there are several influential regional leaders within the group that could step into El Mencho’s shoes. While there is no direct heir to his role – his son jailed for life in the United States for drug trafficking – his stepson, Juan Carlos Valencia González, alias “El 03,” could be a logical successor. His mother, Rosalinda González Valencia, was married to El Mencho and played a major role in the Cuinis, the CJNG’s main money laundering wing, prior to her capture.
SEE ALSO: Is Mexico’s CJNG Pushing the Gulf Cartel From Tamaulipas?
There are other regional leaders with considerable influence among key factions of the CJNG. Chief among them are Audias Flores Silva, “El Jardinero,” and Ricardo Ruíz Velasco “Doble R.” While Flores Silva was allegedly involved in brokering the CJNG’s alliance with the Chapitos in Sinaloa, Ruíz Velasco is a top leader of one of the CJNG’s elite armed wings in its home state of Jalisco.
Another influential CJNG commander is Heraclio Guerrero Martínez, alias “Tío Lako,” who allegedly manages an important share of the group’s fuel theft activity. The CJNG has emerged as a major fuel theft player over the last two decades in states like Veracruz, where the group sells stolen fuel and even exports it to the United States.
Finally, Gonzalo Mendoza Gaitán, alias “El Sapo,” is one of the CJNG’s top logistics coordinators for acquiring precursor chemicals from China that are used to produce synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl, arguably the group’s primary criminal activity. However, some local media have reported that El Sapo was among the CJNG operatives killed during the operation targeting El Mencho.
For the foreseeable future, it is likely to be business as usual for the CJNG’s criminal operations after a short disruption.