CNN, US DEPARTMENT OF STATE, KING, ANNIE GARCIA, DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION, GETTY IMAGES, JIM BECK, TV AZTECA
By Mitchell McCluskey, Gonzalo Zegarra, Avery Schmitz, Sol Amaya, and Mauricio Torres, CNN
(CNN) — Mexican security forces killed the country’s most-wanted cartel leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes in a high-stakes operation on Sunday that set off a spiral of violence and chaos.
Oseguera was the leader and co-founder of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, a criminal group that has rapidly expanded its influence in recent years, becoming one of the main traffickers of methamphetamine and fentanyl into the US.
The attack comes at a pivotal moment for Mexico, as President Claudia Sheinbaum faces increasing pressure from her US counterpart Donald Trump to clamp down on drug trafficking.
It also comes just months before the Mexican city of Guadalajara – which was rocked by violence following the drug lord’s capture – is set to host four group-stage matches of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
How the attack was executed
After years of pursuing Oseguera, Mexican forces on February 20 received a concrete tip about the feared cartel leader’s whereabouts.
Their investigation into Oseguera’s network had led them to a key person who could help access his hideout – a “trusted man” of one of Oseguera’s lovers, according to Mexican Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla Trejo.
The following day, the lover left Oseguera’s cabin complex on the outskirts of Tapalpa, but the drug lord remained at the hideout with his security detail.
Mexican special forces operatives and the National Guard’s Special Immediate Reaction Force then swooped into action, putting together a plan and launching a raid within the next 24 hours.
To avoid arousing suspicion, the mission was primarily carried out by ground forces with limited air support from helicopters, Trevilla said.
Several Mexican army units were present in central Tapalpa on Sunday morning, according to CNN’s analysis of social media video.
Sheinbaum said the US shared intelligence that aided the operation but did not provide ground forces.
The Mexican troops established a perimeter around the complex and then closed in. As they did so, they came under fire from Oseguera’s lieutenants.
Using eyewitness video captured during the operation, CNN pinpointed El Mencho’s likely location in a wooded area which shelters several small, gated compounds just over three miles southwest of Tapalpa. The site, a vacation rental known as Cabañas La Loma, is near the Tapalpa Country Club down a long, remote driveway.
Cabañas La Loma was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2015 and again in 2017 for providing “material assistance to the drug trafficking activities of (the Jalisc