Mexico’s most notorious cartel boss was located and killed after intelligence agencies were able to track down one of his lovers to his secluded resort compound, officials said Monday.
Mexico’s Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla said agents identified a man close to a girlfriend of New Generation Jalisco Cartel boss Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes prior to Sunday’s raid.
The intelligence officers found that the woman was taken to Tapalpa, a mountainside getaway community in Jalisco where Oseguera and his men were located, Trevilla told reporters.
While the girlfriend eventually left the resort, El Mencho and his men remained holed up in the compound when the Mexican military deployed its special forces to take them out.
Once the troops got inside the Oseguera’s compound, heavily armed men fired at the soldiers, leading to a gunfight and chase in the woods near the resort that resulted in the death of four cartel members.
Three others were critically injured and died while being transported to a hospital in Mexico City, including Oseguera.
Officials did not name the girlfriend nor the man who helped lead them to the doorsteps of the king of Mexico’s underworld.
Oseguera was married to Rosalinda González Valencia before their split in 2018, with the ex-wife released from prison last year after serving two years for a money laundering conviction.
Trevilla hailed the successful operation that saw Mexico roll out its army, air force and an elite national-guard unit trained to specifically fight cartels.
“The intelligence process is very complex,” Trevilla said of the time and resources it took to mount the raid.
While Mexico’s military planned and led the operation, the newly formed US Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel provided intelligence for the raid.
El Mencho’s killing triggered cartels to wage a violent revolt across several states in Mexico, with Trevilla lamenting that 25 National Guard members were killed as of Monday.
Mexico Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said the narco gangs waged “27 cowardly attacks against authorities in Jalisco,” adding that 30 cartel members were also killed in the violence.
