“El Mencho” is useless.
This weekend, Mexican Military Particular Forces killed Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, the pinnacle of the highly effective Jalisco New Era Cartel (CJNG) in Tapalpa, Jalisco, Mexico. Following affirmation of El Mencho’s dying by federal authorities, consultants anticipate a profound reconfiguration of the worldwide drug trafficking panorama, a state of affairs that would result in a brand new and harmful wave of violence.
The main target will flip to the CJNG’s mechanisms of management, intimidation, financing, and recruitment that granted the cartel unprecedented operational capability. A lot of its power stemmed from the weakening of long-standing rivals by way of the subtle use of social media and synthetic intelligence, state-of-the-art specialised weaponry, and a versatile inside construction.
The US State Division says that CJNG maintains a presence and contacts in “nearly all of Mexico,” the American continent, and nations akin to Australia, China, and numerous Southeast Asian nations. The company underscores the cartel’s legal versatility: Along with fentanyl trafficking, it’s concerned in extortion, migrant smuggling, oil and mineral theft, and illicit arms commerce.
How Was the CJNG Born?
The CJNG traces its roots to the Sinaloa Cartel, led by Joaquín Guzmán Loera, also known as “El Chapo.” Round 2007, this group shaped an armed wing in Jalisco below the command of Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel Villarreal. This was the Milenio Cartel, often known as Los Valencia. Throughout this era, Guzmán’s operatives had been vying for management of Jalisco territories in opposition to Los Zetas, a splinter group of the Gulf Cartel.
In its early years, the CJNG offered itself as “Los Mata Zetas” (The Zeta Killers). According to the BBC, its first documented look occurred in September 2011, when it claimed duty, by way of a video circulated on social media, for the invention of 35 our bodies in Boca del Río, a municipality within the state of Veracruz.
By then, the alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel had already fractured after a confrontation with federal forces that culminated in 2010 with the dying of Ignacio Coronel. Management fell to Oseguera Cervantes, who spearheaded a speedy enlargement in methamphetamine manufacturing and trafficking.
Cartels Embracing Tech
In lower than 5 years, the CJNG displaced the Knights Templar from southern Michoacán and expelled Los Zetas from northern Jalisco and elements of Zacatecas. After Guzmán Loera’s seize and extradition, the group strengthened its technique by recruiting monetary and chemical specialists to spice up the manufacture of artificial medication and diversify its earnings by way of money-laundering schemes in sectors akin to livestock, mining, agriculture, and development, in addition to increasing extortion of small- and medium-size companies.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) notes that the CJNG operates in additional than 40 nations and has a monetary construction referred to as Los Cuinis, headed by Abigael González Valencia, Oseguera’s brother-in-law. This community coordinates money-laundering operations by way of worldwide commerce, cryptocurrencies, and hyperlinks with Asian networks.
A number of investigations have documented the usage of digital instruments for recruitment and fraud. In 2024, Interpol warned that teams just like the CJNG had been concerned in large-scale financial scams supported by AI, pure language fashions, and cryptocurrencies. It additionally detected the enlargement of human trafficking for forced criminal activity in scam compounds.
A research by El Colegio de México, in collaboration with the Civic AI Lab at Northeastern College in Boston, revealed that TikTok has turn into a recruitment tool for Mexican cartels, together with CJNG. The analysis recognized 100 lively accounts linked to illicit organizations and categorized their content material as recruitment, border crossings, unlawful companies, prostitution, propaganda, and arms gross sales. Forty-seven % of the accounts promoted the recruitment of latest members, and 31 % disseminated propaganda messages. The report highlighted that the CJNG accounted for 54.3 % of the detected accounts, adopted by the Sinaloa Cartel and the Northeast Cartel.
