The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) is one of the most powerful criminal organizations not only in Mexico, but in the entire world.
It is primarily involved in drug and arms trafficking, and is considered a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department and the Argentine government.
However, few know the origin of this powerful organization, which began in 2007 under the name Los Mata Zetas (The Zeta Killers).
Los Mata Zetas was an armed group formed in 2007 that became independent in 2010. It was the precursor to the CJNG, a criminal organization that emerged in 2011 and was led by Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, alias El Mencho, who died last February following an operation by the Mexican Army in Tapalpa, Jalisco.
The Mexican government announced that in 2018, the CJNG surpassed the Sinaloa Cartel in its control of local organized crime, a position the latter had held for over 20 years.
Since 2014, the CJNG has maintained an alliance with the Tijuana Cartel (Arellano Félix Cartel), which, in practice, became a merger. Their aim was to regain control of the route to the United States through Tijuana, which had been controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel, leading to significant insecurity in the border region. This merger is known as the Tijuana New Generation Cartel (CTNG), which serves as the CJNG’s headquarters in that part of the country.
The Mata Zetas aimed to eliminate all members of the then-group of hitmen, arguing that, in addition to drug trafficking, its members were terrorists, and that their countless victims included many civilians.
