The Mexican government killed Rubén Nemesio Oseguera, alias El Mencho, the world’s most wanted and dangerous drug trafficker, on Sunday. In an operation in the mountains of Jalisco state, where El Mencho had operated with impunity for decades, protected by his criminal forces, Mexican security forces eliminated the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the country’s deadliest criminal organization, with tentacles reaching across the globe. The capture of El Mencho, a man of whom there is scant photographic evidence and who was also a priority target for the United States, is the biggest blow dealt to drug trafficking in recent history.
Rubén Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes was born on July 17, 1966, in Naranjo de Chila, Michoacán, the son of farmers who emigrated to California, where one of his few photographs dates from: with curly hair. The other, more well-known photograph, with a serene face and mustache, is the one that has always been used to try to identify the man who created a criminal empire, first in street-level drug dealing, then as a hitman, plaza boss, until becoming a major global drug trafficker. Oseguera, for whom the DEA (the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) offered $15 million, was the most coveted target in the war on drugs, after the fall of the Sinaloa Cartel leaders, El Chapo Guzmán and El Mayo Zambada, and the extradition to the United States of another major kingpin, Rafael Caro Quintero.
While awaiting further details on the operation, the capture of El Mencho represents a triumph for the security strategy of President Claudia Sheinbaum, led by her Secretary of Security, Omar García Harfuch, at one of the most critical moments of the six-year term, with violence on the rise in places like Sinaloa and Michoacán.
