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One of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers – the Mexican cartel boss known as “El Mencho” – has reportedly been killed by his country’s security forces.
The drug lord, whose real name is Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, was killed on Sunday in the western state of Jalisco, Mexican newspapers reported, citing government sources.
The 59-year-old gangster was the leader of a group that in recent years has become Mexico’s most powerful and notorious criminal organisation: the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
While less internationally famous than the Sinaloa cartel of the now imprisoned Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the Jalisco group is a household name in Mexico where it is infamous for its displays of ultraviolence and its big, military-style arsenal.
The US had offered a $15m (£11m) reward for the capture of the drug boss accused of smuggling huge quantities of cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine across its southern border.
In a sign of El Mencho’s huge influence across Mexico, as well as other parts of Latin America, his killing sparked an immediate outbreak of disorder across the region he ruled.
Media reports said that on Sunday lunchtime “narco” roadblocks made from burning cars, buses and trucks could be seen across at least five Mexican states: Jalisco, Guanajuato, Nayarit, Michoacán and Tamaulipas. Video footage showed huge clouds of smoke rising into the skies above Puerto Vallarta, a major tourist city on Mexico’s west coast famed for its spectacular Pacific Ocean beaches.
There were scenes of chaos in Jalisco’s capital, Guadalajara – one of the 2026 World Cup host cities – as panicked passengers sprinted for cover, apparently fearing reprisal attacks from El Mencho’s fighters. Armed men were seen torching vehicles in the heart of the city.
Jalisco’s state governor, Pablo Lemus Navarro, urged its 8 million citizens to stay at home “until the situation is brought back under control”. Lemus said public transport services were being suspended and said locals should not travel on the state’s roads because of the “violent events” that had spread to at least five parts of the country.
The US embassy in Mexico City also issued a security alert, urging US citizens to “shelter in place” in affected regions as a result of “ongoing security operations and related road blockages and criminal activity”.
Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, offered no immediate confirmation of El Mencho’s killing, telling reporters they would soon be briefed by her security council.
It was not immediately clear where or how the narco-boss had been killed but reports suggested he had died during an operation in Tapalpa, a town about 80 miles south-west of Guadalajara. Footage published in one regional newspaper, El Occidental, showed scenes of what appeared to be heavy fighting.
More details soon …
