The son of a Mexican drug cartel boss was sentenced to life in a U.S. prison for his leadership role in one of the country’s largest and most violent narcotics trafficking organizations.
Rubén Oseguera, known as “El Menchito”, is the son of Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, the fugitive cartel boss of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, which U.S. officials have described as “one of the world’s most violent and prolific drug trafficking organizations.”
The son served as the CJNG cartel’s second-in-command before his extradition to the U.S. in February 2020.
The younger Oseguera faced a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum of 40 years in prison when U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell sentenced him in Washington, D.C. One of the 35-year-old Oseguera’s defense attorneys asked for a 40-year prison sentence, noting his client was only 14 when he was recruited to join his family’s drug trafficking operation.
Howell also ordered a forfeiture of over $6 billion as part of the sentence.
In September, a federal jury convicted the younger Oseguera of conspiring to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine for U.S. importation and using a firearm in a drug conspiracy.
“El Menchito led the Jalisco Cartel’s efforts to use murder, kidnapping, and torture to build the Cartel into a self-described ’empire’ by manufacturing fentanyl and flooding the United States with massive quantities of lethal drugs,” former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in September.
DOJ
Ruben Oseguera ordered the killings of at least 100 people, personally shot and killed at least two people and ordered subordinates to shoot down a Mexican military helicopter, killing at least nine people in 2015, prosecutors said.
The elder Oseguera is accused of fentanyl and methamphetamine trafficking. He is one of the most wanted people in Mexico and the U.S., where authorities have offered a $15 million reward for his capture.
His wife, Rosalinda Gonzalez, was released from prison in Mexico in February. She is believed to manage the financial operations of the cartel, which was among the Latin American drug trafficking groups designated as terrorist organizations by Washington earlier this year.
In November, the son-in-law of “El Mencho” was arrested in California after U.S. officials say he faked his own death to “live a life of luxury” north of the border.
President Trump has designated eight Latin American drug trafficking organizations as terrorist organizations, including the Jalisco cartel, which emerged in 2010.
The Jalisco cartel is better known for producing millions of doses of deadly fentanyl and smuggling them into the U.S. disguised to look like Xanax, Percocet or oxycodone.
