MEXICO CITY — “El Mencho,” the highly effective drug lord the Mexican military killed in a daring raid, had created what safety specialists say was one of the vital superior safety operations devised to guard a cartel boss. His system relied on high-powered weaponry, practically 400 gunmen, bomb-delivering drones and, generally, land mines.
Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, 59, who was fatally wounded when particular forces stormed a hideout in Jalisco state on Sunday, took extraordinary precautions, in accordance with sources acquainted with his operations who requested anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to talk publicly.
Oseguera not often allowed a cellphone close to him as a result of he feared a GPS sign may reveal his location.
Although Oseguera nonetheless had bodyguards with him who exchanged fireplace with the Mexican military on Sunday, it seems that he was considerably exterior his standard protecting bubble that evening, the sources mentioned.
He was tracked down with the assistance of U.S. intelligence obtained, partially, by means of Predator drone surveillance, the sources mentioned.
Oseguera was an elusive capo and thought of the most-feared and highly effective drug lord in Mexico. Few images of him circulated publicly, and he had a safety equipment modeled after army particular forces groups. Extremely skilled forces moved with him wherever he traveled, in accordance with individuals acquainted with his operations.
“He lived so incognito that exterior his circle, few knew what he appeared like,” mentioned Arturo Fontes, a former FBI agent who spent many years monitoring down a few of Mexico’s prime narco traffickers, together with Oseguera.
The founding father of the Jalisco New Technology cartel had fleets of bolstered, tank-style automobiles outfitted with six-barreled Gatling weapons able to destroying a small automotive and shoulder-fired rocket launchers that would down helicopters.
The Jalisco cartel is understood for its terrorist techniques. Final yr, cartel forces drone-bombed a prosecutor’s workplace in Tijuana and shot useless Carlos Manzo, a outstanding mayor in Michoacán state who spoke out towards cartels. And in 2020 they attacked then-Mexico Metropolis Police Chief Omar García Harfuch, who’s now minister of safety.
Troopers clear a roadblock on a route resulting in Tapalpa, Mexico, on Feb. 23, 2026, a day after the Mexican military killed Jalisco New Technology cartel chief Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, often called “El Mencho.”
(Marco Ugarte / Related Press)
For defense, sources say, Oseguera had acquired counter-drone radar scramblers and employed a financial institution of younger pc hackers to infiltrate army mainframes to maintain monitor of army and Mexican authorities intelligence.
Tons of of gunmen managed each route resulting in Oseguera’s important compound in Jalisco state, making concentric circles of safety round his hideout. The routes had been lined with land mines for miles round, in accordance with individuals acquainted with his exercise. The personnel in every circle knew solely the format of the land mines of their space — they didn’t know the place the subsequent spherical of land mines began or stopped.
For months, Mexican Cupboard officers had mentioned the challenges of capturing Oseguera and weighed the possible violent fallout from his arrest, mentioned an individual acquainted with the talks who requested anonymity to debate inner issues. Officers believed that if President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration didn’t act, President Trump may launch a unilateral raid on Mexican soil, that supply mentioned.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Secretary of the Navy Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles arrive on the Nationwide Palace in Mexico Metropolis on Feb. 23, 2026.
(Cristopher Rogel Blanquet / Getty Photos)
Sheinbaum and different Mexican officers have referred to as such a raid unacceptable and a violation of Mexico’s sovereignty. However U.S. specialists have for years been concerned in offering Mexican authorities intelligence and have skilled Mexican personnel. Now, the specter of an incursion by U.S. forces pushed Mexican authorities to take motion, the supply mentioned.
Over the past six months, throughout routine coaching of Mexican troopers by U.S. particular forces, the seize of Oseguera was one of many excessive precedence situations, an individual acquainted with the workout routines mentioned.
Sources described a sequence of steps that led to Oseguera’s seize. They spoke on situation of anonymity to share delicate data.
In early February, Mexican legislation enforcement arrested a public official suspected of shut ties to the Jalisco cartel.
He offered leads on individuals near the capo, and Mexican legislation enforcement carried out a flurry of raids primarily based on data he offered, in accordance with individuals acquainted with the operations. It helped intelligence officers dwelling in on Oseguera’s location, these individuals mentioned.
Whereas different capos would not often sleep in the identical place twice, to remain forward of the legislation, Oseguera had a late-stage kidney illness and wanted every day dialysis, limiting his actions, individuals acquainted with his exercise mentioned.
A soldier on obligation close to a car destroyed in cartel-on-cartel violence in Cointzio, Mexico, on Feb. 22, 2026, after the loss of life of the drug kingpin often called “El Mencho.”
(Armando Solis / Related Press)
Within the days main as much as the raid, a Predator surveillance drone flew at 20,000 ft over the southwestern states of Colima, Nayarit and Jalisco, gathering intelligence on cartel operatives and zeroing in on Oseguera.
Mexican intelligence officers situated Oseguera’s lover two days earlier than the raid and started monitoring her, Mexican Protection Minister Ricardo Trevilla mentioned in a information convention Monday.
They tracked her to a location in central Jalisco, about two hours south of Guadalajara. The CIA and FBI offered El Mencho’s exact location to Mexican army intelligence, one individual acquainted with the operations mentioned. A day later, she left and Oseguera stayed.
A Predator drone, used within the early 2000s to bomb Islamic State militants in Iraq and Afghanistan, hovered nonstop above the situation, monitoring Mencho’s actions and the actions of his forces, an individual acquainted with the operations mentioned.
Then, earlier than dawn Sunday morning, a military helicopter dropped greater than a dozen Mexican particular forces close to Oseguera’s hideout within the city of Tapalpa, in accordance with sources acquainted with the operations. He had hosted a celebration at his dwelling the evening earlier than, these individuals mentioned, and his safety crew was not on excessive alert. This dwelling was not his important compound, sources mentioned, and the world was not studded with land mines.
Particular forces closed in on Oseguera’s dwelling and a firefight ensued, Trevilla mentioned. The army mentioned the operation concerned six planes, together with warplanes able to carrying missiles.
A physique lies beside a bullet-riddled car on Feb. 23, 2026, in Tapalpa, the city in Jalisco state the place the Mexican military killed “El Mencho.”
(Marco Ugarte / Related Press)
Oseguera had a small, tight safety crew with him at his dwelling that evening, and he had a bunch of military-grade weapons, together with two anti-tank rocket launchers with him, Trevilla mentioned. However he was no match for the military’s air assault.
Mencho’s internal circle of safety, identified for his or her elite coaching by former Colombian particular forces, fired on a helicopter offering air help, forcing it to make an emergency touchdown at a close-by military base. Simply over a decade earlier, in one other raid to seize Oseguera, his males downed a military helicopter utilizing a shoulder-fired rocket launcher, killing 9 individuals on board.
The particular forces killed eight gunmen as they rushed Oseguera’s dwelling early Sunday morning.
He fled into the woods with two members of his safety crew, Trevilla mentioned. Particular forces discovered Oseguera hiding in undergrowth, badly wounded together with two of his crew, he mentioned.
A military extraction crew landed in a helicopter, picked up Oseguera and his two sicarios and was airborne inside minutes, in accordance with an individual acquainted with the operation. The chopper headed to a medical middle in Jalisco. Oseguera died en route.
This text was co-published with Puente Information Collaborative, a bilingual nonprofit newsroom that covers tales from Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border.
