President Donald Trump claimed during the State of the Union that the U.S. is to credit for the killing of Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, known as "El Mencho," the longtime leader of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).
Trump made the remark when claiming that "large parts of Mexico have been controlled by murderous drug cartels," leading him to declare several of them as foreign terrorist organizations.
"We've also taken down one of the most sinister cartel kingpins. you saw that yesterday," Trump said during a passage of the address. He didn't explicitly mention the slain drug lord, but the topic has dominated the conversation since Sunday when Mexican forces conducted the operation.
Trump did not delve into the extent of the U.S.'s involvement, with both countries saying on Sunday that there was cooperation between them.
In a press release detailing how the developments unfolded, Mexico's Defense Secretariat said that "for the execution of the operation, as well as central military intelligence tasks, within the framework of bilateral coordination and cooperation with the U.S., there was complementary information from the country's authorities."
The New York Times expanded on the matter, reporting that the CIA provided 'instrumental' information to locate El Mencho. The outlet went on to say that the U.S. has stepped up intelligence-sharing with the country and pressuring it to act on it.
General Ricardo Trevilla Trejo explained that Mexican forces managed to locate El Mencho after tracking down a lover of his. He said that military intelligence managed to locate a man close to one of El Mencho's lovers, allowing them to determine his location. Once the person left the premise, officers confirmed that El Mencho stayed there. Forces then moved on to detain him, engaging in a shootout with cartel operatives there.
Trevilla Trejo noted that that El Mencho tried to escape while leaving a group of operatives behind to slow down government forces. He made it to a nearby wood, but forces pinned him down and wounded him. El Mencho was taken to a helicopter heading to Mexico City, but he died on the way.
Oseguera Cervantes rose from local criminal networks into the top tier of Mexico's underworld, becoming the face of CJNG's rapid expansion. The cartel emerged after fractures in earlier organizations, and over time built a reputation for combining sophisticated trafficking with aggressive territorial violence, as well as diversification into other illicit businesses.
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