US-military-led task force contributed to intelligence efforts on El Mencho operation

Mexican authorities killed Nemesio Oseguera, the 60-year-old leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) known as 'El Mencho', during a military operation in Jalisco state on Sunday.The raid, designed to capture him, was carried out solely by Mexican forces with no physical involvement from U.S. personnel, according to a Mexican government source and Mexico's defense ministry. The ministry stated that U.S. authorities supplied "complementary information," without elaborating.

A U.S. defense official confirmed that the newly established Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel (JIATF-CC), launched last month and involving multiple U.S. agencies, contributed to intelligence efforts leading to the operation. The task force focuses on mapping cartel networks across the U.S.-Mexico border to disrupt and dismantle them.A former U.S. official said the U.S. had compiled a detailed target package on El Mencho, drawing from law enforcement and intelligence sources, and shared it with Mexico.

El Mencho ranked at or near the top of U.S. priority targets in Mexico and had evaded capture for years despite a $15 million U.S. bounty. The killing triggered widespread violence, including torched vehicles and highway blockades by gunmen in over half a dozen states.

Brigadier General Maurizio Calabrese, who leads the task force, described the challenge:

"The cartels operate differently than al Qaeda or ISIS, different motivations, which makes it even more important for us to identify entire networks so that we can disrupt and dismantle (them)."

The operation marks a significant blow against the CJNG, a major player in smuggling cocaine and fentanyl into the United States. In the last days before he died El Mencho lived on the run, nervous and "sure that every move was monitored by U.S. security agencies in constant communication with the Mexican government."