Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” leads a powerful Mexican drug cartel the Trump administration designated a foreign terrorist organization and faces allegations of drug trafficking and murder conspiracy, officials said.
El Mencho is the founder and leader of Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), a violent Mexico-based drug trafficking and money laundering operation, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The group has quickly expanded into America, establishing itself in smaller cities and towns to sell drugs, a Courier Journal investigation found.
El Mencho has been engaged in drug trafficking since the 1990s, the Treasury Department said in 2015. He briefly served as a police officer before returning to drug smuggling, according to InSight Crime. The Milenio Cartel, which he worked for, reportedly split into two organizations and he led the faction called “Los Torcidos.” That group became what is now CJNG, the outlet reported.
A federal grand jury indicted El Mencho on charges related to drug trafficking and distribution, as well as murder conspiracy and use of a firearm, according to 2020 court documents. DEA agent Kyle Mori estimated El Mencho’s net worth ranged from $500 million to over $1 billion dollars in 2019, Univision News reported.
The Trump administration designated CJNG a foreign terrorist organization in February and slapped sanctions on its leadership in June, placing a $15 million bounty on El Mencho, The Associated Press (AP) reported. He is featured on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) most wanted list.
“CJNG’s reign of terror across Mexico and its trafficking of fentanyl into the United States has destroyed countless innocent lives,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
The cartel has employed children in its illicit activities in the U.S., according to a former official. “Sadly, we’ve seen this horrific cartel exploit the children of San Diego and our border area by using them to conceal and smuggle deadly drugs into our country,” then-DEA Special Agent in Charge John W. Callery alleged in a 2020 press release.
Cartels have used children to smuggle drugs to exploit U.S. “catch-and-release” policies that forced authorities to release most families into the country or transfer them to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). President Donald Trump took aim at the policy after his inauguration, claiming that around 40% of such migrants disappeared under the Biden administration, a White House fact sheet read.
The cartel allegedly sent spies to watch U.S. officials in Washington, D.C., during El Mencho’s son “El Menchito’s” trial, DEA Special Agent in Charge Matthew W. Allen of the Los Angeles Division said in a June hearing. “As a direct result of the capture and prosecution of Menchito, CJNG struck back in Mexico, shooting the wife and killing the daughter of a cooperating informant and killing a Mexican Army soldier. This is who we’re up against, [a] paramilitary cartel, with global reach, willing to kill families and surveil U.S. personnel on our own soil,” he said.
Firefighters work on a burned bus in Guadalajara, Mexico, amid an escalation of violence by the Jalisco New Generation Drug Cartel. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
A federal court sentenced El Menchito — real name Ruben Oseguera-Gonzalez — to life imprisonment with an additional 30 years for his role in his father’s cartel in March 2025, according to the DOJ. He killed multiple people and, in 2015, ordered an attack on a Mexican military helicopter to facilitate his and his father’s escape, court records said. (RELATED: State Department Revokes Visas Of Mexican Band, Accuses Them Of ‘Glorifying Drug Kingpin’ At Concert)
Allen also testified about CJNG’s presence in LA. “Los Angeles is not just a transshipment hub, it is an operational base for both the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG. These cartels exploit Southern California’s ports, highways, financial institutions, and communities to facilitate everything from drug production and distribution to money laundering and weapons procurement. Their influence extends into the very heart of our neighborhoods,” he said.
Agents found a mural of El Mencho “painted across the wall from floor to ceiling” when raiding an LA-based CJNG warehouse, Allen told the senators. “The message was clear: ‘We are here and we are among you,’” he said.
