Jalisco Cartel Leader 'El Mencho' Slapped With Sanctions For Role In Drug Trafficking And Killings

Jalisco Cartel leader Ruben "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes was among five people sanctioned for their roles in the organization's drug trafficking operations, as well as killings tied to it.

The sanctions, announced on Wednesday, freeze assets the people targeted have in the U.S., whether they are personal or part of a company, and prevents U.S. citizens from doing business with them. The U.S. is also offering $15 million for information that could lead to the capture of "El Mencho."

"CJNG's reign of terror across Mexico and its trafficking of fentanyl into the United States has destroyed countless innocent lives," said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent when announcing the decision.

"The United States remains strongly committed to leveraging all available tools to degrade the capacity of CJNG and other cartels to flood our streets with dangerous drugs and perpetrate heinous acts of violence against civilians."

The other cartel leaders targeted by the sanctions are Gonzalo Mendoza Gaytan, Ricardo Ruiz Velasco, Julio Alberto Castillo Rodriguez (Oseguera's son-in-law) and Audias Flores Silva.

The Jalisco Cartel is among those designated as a terrorist organization by the Trump administration earlier this year. It is one of the strongest ones in Mexico and has recently become the first group in the country to establish an operational presence across all 32 federal entities. U.S. and Mexican intelligence agencies have confirmed the CJNG's presence from Baja California to Yucatán.

"This is historic. Never before has a cartel had control or presence in all 32 federal entities. Not even the CDS (Sinaloa Cartel) in its prime," said Mexican organized crime expert and journalist Oscar Balmen, regarding a DEA map showing the expansion of the CJNG throughout the country: central, northern, and southern regions.

The map is dated from January 2025, before the war in Sinaloa between Los Chapitos and La Mayiza escalated, and images emerged as proof of an alliance between the sons of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and the CJNG.

Part of CJNG's ascent lies in its brutal militarized tactics and recruitment strategies. Reports have documented "ranches" where recruits, often teenage boys, are kidnapped with false job offers, indoctrinated through torture, and forced to kill or mutilate to earn acceptance. These so-called "schools of terror" cultivate fearsome loyalty and desensitization, complementing CJNG's deadly reputation. Recruits have also been reported to be lured by the cartel through social media.

In March 2025, a group of volunteers called the Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco, looking for their missing relatives, received an anonymous tip about a hidden ranch outside Guadalajara. At the ranch, they discovered three cremation ovens, 200 pairs of shoes, along with other personal items, and hundreds of bone fragments.

To reinforce its reach and firepower, CJNG has recruited former combatants from Colombia. Reports emerged in mid-2025 that Colombian former guerrillas were secretly training cartel units in Michoacán, equipping them with guerrilla tactics and discipline. This militarization has had lethal consequences. In May 2025, six soldiers were killed in Michoacán when an improvised explosive device detonated during a routine patrol. The attack has been attributed to CJNG's paramilitary cell.

Financially, CJNG has diversified aggressively into fuel theft, extortion, avocado laundering, and real estate scams, generating hundreds of millions in illicit revenue. Its financial arm, Los Cuinis, has also been sanctioned for money laundering tied to its global narcotics trade. In February 2025, the U.S. State Department designated CJNG a foreign terrorist organization, one of only a handful of cartels to receive such a designation, citing its methods of terror and cross-border trafficking of fentanyl and weapons.