Mexico had to unleash its full military power to take down the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the country’s most powerful drug kingpin — and it also got an assist from US intelligence.
The daring weekend raid saw Mexico roll out its army, air force and an elite national-guard unit trained to specifically fight cartels to take down Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, an ex-cop who had a $15 million US bounty on his head.
Oseguera had amassed a small army as the head of the country’s most dangerous cartel, and his personal guards even had rocket launchers on hand at his resort compound in Jalisco.
After years of ruling Mexico’s underground, Oseguera’s men had access to military-style equipment that made a traditional police raid impossible.
A previous raid on a CJNG base found that the cartel had a plethora of automatic machine guns, grenade launchers and the type of RPGs that took down a military helicopter in 2015.
Oseguera’s compound was also found to have the type of heavy weapons and armored vehicles typically seen in a military unit, rather than a gang.
Before Sunday’s raid came together, Mexican authorities had gotten aid from the US Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel (JITF-CC) group, which was formed last month to map out the networks used by the cartel along the border.
President Trump has made cracking down on Mexico’s cartels — the main source of deadly fentanyl and other drugs that flow into the US — a major priority.
The agency’s director, Brigadier Gen. Maurizio Calabrese, said the task force used its military experience fighting terrorist groups like al Qaeda and Islamic State to study and map out the cartel’s network.
“The cartels operate differently than al Qaeda or ISIS, different motivations, which makes it even more important for us to identify entire networks so that we can disrupt and dismantle (them),” Calabrese told Reuters.
Since Trump officially designated Mexico’s cartels as terrorist groups last year, the task force was able to use military assets to surveil the drug traffickers.
The agency ultimately compiled a detailed target package on El Mencho, who was located in the rural town of Tapalpa.
While little is known about the specific intel that the American JITF-CC provided, the agency’s website states that its goal is to “identify, disrupt, and dismantle cartel operations posing a threat to the United States along the U.S.-Mexico border.”
Mexico’s Security Ministry noted that the US provided “supplementary information” for the raid, with the operation planned and led by the nation’s central military-intelligence unit.
Part of the intelligence gathering included tracking down a man linked to one of Mencho’s lovers, who led officials to Oseguera’s mountainside compound, said Mexico’s Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla.
When the girlfriend eventually left the resort, El Mencho and his men remained holed up in the compound, Trevilla added.
With the plan finalized, Mexico sent out its special forces to Oseguera’s compound on Sunday, where the kingpin’s fighters began firing at the soldiers as they fled into the nearby woods.
The Mexican troops “returned fire,” killing four cartel members in the shoot out, with Oseguera and three other gangsters dying from their wounds during an air transport, according to the security ministry.
The Mexican soldiers had help from Air Force aircraft and the National Guard rapid-reaction units to quickly overpower Oseguera’s men and take control of the resort.
Following El Mencho’s death, cartel groups across Mexico went on a rampage, blocking major highways and setting cars ablaze in retaliation.
A shelter in place was issued for Puerto Vallarta, a resort town west of Tapalpa, with cartel violence running amok in the state.
At least 25 members of the National Guard were killed in Jalisco during the rampage, along with a prison guard and an agent with the state prosecutor’s office, Mexico Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said.
With Post wires
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