A new task force, led by US military personnel and specializing in intelligence gathering on drug cartels, played a role in Sunday’s Mexican military raid that killed Mexican drug lord Nemesio Osegueras, alias El Mencho, a US defense official told Reuters.
The Joint Interagency Anti-Cartel Task Force, which involves several Washington agencies, was formally launched last month with the goal of dismantling organized crime networks on both sides of the US-Mexico border, the same source said.
The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not offer further details about the information the US military-led task force may have provided to Mexican authorities. However, he did emphasize that the raid itself was a Mexican military operation.
A former U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity and not specifically referring to the task force, said the U.S. compiled a detailed dossier on El Mencho and provided it to the Mexican government for its operation. This detailed dossier included information provided by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies, the source said.
Mexican authorities killed El Mencho during an operation designed to capture him in Jalisco. The operation triggered a wave of violence, with cars set ablaze and gunmen blocking highways in more than half a dozen states.
