Is Mencho replacing Chapo as Drug Cartel King?

By Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat 

He has the reputation of being intelligent, calculating, and a criminal visionary. He is  the leading candidate to become the new "Mexican drug king".... he is; Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes aka "El Mencho".

According to sources, information from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), says the leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel [CJNG] has exponentially increased his power and territory. Recent mantas support that theory. 

Today, the CJNG cartel is Mexico’s biggest national security threat.  

Oseguera Cervantes leads this organization,  also known as  Mata Zetas, founded in 2010.

For years He was a  lieutenant of different groups, including Los Valencia of the Milenio cartel. He proved to be skillful and talented, within the organized crime business.  He was able to sell protection to other powerful leaders of drug trafficking, such as is Rafael Caro Quintero, who Mencho allegedly offered his services when Quintero was released from the Puente Grande prison.

CJNG was founded in 2010, after the Mexican army killed Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, one of the top leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, in Zapopan Jalisco.

The group, originally created to benefit Chapo Guzman, the imprisoned leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.  Chapo commissioned the group as a Sinaloa branch of enforcers, who primarily focused on the elimination of Zetas in Jalisco and Veracruz. Hence the name, they were tagged with "Los Matazetas", [The Zeta Killers].

In case one forgets the brutality of Mencho, one need only to think back to the fall of 2011.

Few that follow the Mexican drug war, can forget in September 2011, the 35 tortured and executed bodies dumped on a busy highway in Boca del Rio, Veracruz.

That was the work of Mencho's group. 

Mencho, working with other Sinaloa Cartel people, have moved into Veracruz specifically to replace Los Zetas and control the drug and human trafficking state.

The narco mantas left at the scene stated the group was present in Veracruz to eliminate Los Zetas, the message declared 35 were Zetas.

But they were not Zetas, they were innocents,citizens that had no links to organized crime, teachers, students, housewives, a decorated police officer.  Innocents selected randomly to be a part of the staged theater, used for emphasis in a message sent by Mencho.

Soon the truth would be revealed, that in fact none of the dead had ties to organized crime and almost none had criminal records of serious crimes.  Six had records of minor violations, such as fighting or stealing, and one was suspected of a serious crime which had no link to organized crime.

Mencho achieved his goal.  Worldwide attention was focused on the group that came to Veracruz to eliminate the Zetas Cartel.  The worldwide press ran the photos of the 35 bodies, but failed to correct the story when it was known the 35 were innocents and not criminals.  Or that 100% of the Boca del Rio police force was fired, and the department was taken over by the federal government.  100% of the force failed polys or refused to be tested and were found culpable of working for organized crime. 

Citizens witnessed municipal police taking people who would later be murdered by Mencho's Mata Zetas and left in a human pile on a highway in Boca del Rio.

Neighbors reported seeing the abductions, such as a 15-year-old high school student, walking to the store to purchase feed for his chickens, he was picked up, and taken away in a squad car, he was next seen among the pile of bodies. (above)

CJNG and Sinaloa cartel split after Boca del Rio.  El Chapo was rumored to be incensed over the Boca del Rio fiasco.

A week after the massacre, Matazetas [CJNG] posted a video on Facebook.  Men in black hoods, gloves and tees, sitting at a table, apologized for the violence in Boca del Rio.  They went on to say the violence was due to their mission of removing the scourge, meaning Zetas.

Saying; "Los Matazetas" have arrived in Veracruz to end the insecurity: "Our only interest, is the Los Zetas Cartel”  insisting they respected the armed forces.

Mencho: San Francisco 1986

The emergence of certain militia groups called AUC, (fake autodefensas) notably, the Buenavista group known as the H3,  has helped the Oseguera Cervantes cartel to  now dominate half of the neighboring Michoacan state, in a  territory dispute  with Caballeros Templarios.

The H3 group, have long been rumored to be a cover for Los Viagras, and CJNG.

Viagras, founded and headed by the Sierra Santana brothers, Mariano and Carlos,  are the first and only splinter group from Templarios, however, they quickly turned their back on the alliance with La Tuta and the Templarios, and  aligned themselves with Mencho, against the Templarios. 

Allegedly, the reason for Viagras to seek the Mencho alliance was due to Mencho's power with the federal police, having them on his payroll.  Mencho grasped the opportunity to acquire the edge he needed to take control of Michoacán. Something he badly wanted, he himself being a Michoacano.

Mencho began supplying weapons and vehicles to the group.  Reportedly, Raphael Caro Quintero is also supplying the group with vehicles.

Mencho has demonstrated he is willing to relinquish some power in order to gain a bigger, long term goal.

Mencho gave the upper portion  of the Guerrero Sur coast, for Los Viagras, to operate in.

This territory is adjacent to the lucrative Lazaro Cardenas port.  In  exchange,  Mencho acquires inroads into Michoacán.

Viagras became stronger and able to expand its operational powers in Michoacán, and provide Mencho with drug product. 

H3 AUC became the Rurales of the state of Michoacán.  The federally founded backed group.  The baby of Alfredo Castillo, and whose commanders are linked to Viagras, who are allied with Mencho.

Big winner: Mencho and CJNG

Big loser: La Tuta and Caballeros Templarios

In the Viagra Mencho alliance, Mencho .has the Viagras taking care of much of the dirty work in the area along the coast, kidnappings and executions.

  

An  El Observer article says a DEA official, said that the arrest of "El Chapo placed Mencho in open warfare against any vestige of the Sinaloa cartel".

"El Chapo tried to have him assassinated a few years ago" because he saw Mencho as a threat", says the official. According to information published in the Mexican newspaper La Vanguardia. 

Mencho: San Francisco 1989

Mencho Oseguera is nearly 50 years old and is a native of Chila, Michoacán.

There is little doubt that the  capture of Chapo, and the alliance with Viagras greatly assisted to expedite, and fortify,  the  power rise of CJNG,  which has benefited from the fragmentation and internal disputes among groups. Internal wars between members of the Sinaloa cartel and its allies have obstructed attempts to establish a replacement chief in the Sinaloa Cartel.

Intelligence reports determine that in Tijuana, those who are loyal to  Chapo are disputing leadership with those who want the alleged No. 2, Ismael “Mayo” Zambada, assume leadership.  “Chapitos versus Mayitos.”

The AFP news agency reports that Oseguera Cervantes has taken control of the movement of drugs, using part of the Pacific routes, mainly from the dynamic port of Manzanillo (west), where he receives cocaine and ephedrine from Colombia and China.

Like every other cartel, Mencho has suffered few losses of key members in his organization, an example  would be  in  January 2014, Rubén Oseguera, aka "Menchito", son of Mencho, was captured on the outskirts of Guadalajara during a military operation.