The head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes also known as El Mencho was killed Sunday February 22nd. He was killed during a shootout in the town of Tatalpa in Mexico by Mexican authorities.

In the past, El Mencho was believed to be a former police officer. He was from Michoacan, western Mexico and built a huge criminal corporation for more than 30 years. According to the article on Aljazeera, “US authorities convicted him of heroin trafficking in the mid-1990s, and he served a prison sentence in the US”(Al Jazeera and Agencies Feb 24). After returning to Mexico, he rose rapidly in the drug underworld and in 2009 he founded the Jalisco New Generation Cartel which would later become one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent cartels. They would traffic drugs like cocaine and fentanyl into the United States. They were also known for deploying military style tactics on security forces.

On February 20th, Mexican authorities began surrounding a property in the town of Tatalpa where they believed El Mencho was hiding out with the help of one of his romantic partners and were able to seal off the area by the 22nd. El Mencho’s gunman opened fire on soldiers as they advanced and in retaliation they fired back killing several suspected CJNG members. El Mencho and a few people in his inner circle fled the area and to a nearby wooded cabin complex where another gunfight took place. Soldiers later would find him wounded as well as 2 of his bodyguards. He was taken to a medical facility but would succumb to his injuries.

After his death, Members of CJNG released a wave of violence across 20 Mexican states. According to a article on BBC,”They torched businesses and erected burning blockades in retaliation to the killing of their leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, better known as “El Mencho”(Buschschlüter, Mitchell Feb 23rd). They would also block roads by throwing spikes and nails on the tarmac. They would also take buses or other vehicles and then torch them in the middle of the road. These acts of violence would cause airlines to cancelled flights to Puerto Vallarta as well as causing schools and universities in the towns to temporally suspend classes.