How Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes became capo

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat from ejecentral 

Translation by "Cruz" for Borderland Beat

A

 strict chain of command, forging solid loyalties and paramilitary training for his hitmen, is the formula that led the maximum leader of the CJNG to be the man "that spits in the face of the institutions."

There were 3 ambushes. 3 attacks that could have passed of as military-style tactics, well planned in which the shooters were able to come across intelligence information of their targets, they knew their location, routes, number of elements, weapons, communication equipment...everything.

The strategy used against the military and police forces during those 3 attacks was the same, which occurred in Jalisco in only 11 months time, between May 2014 and Abril 2015: having intelligence information, blocking the path in order to attack without caution, kind of like wrapping them up with shots at the sides. In summary, 33 public servants were murdered in those assaults. It was about "an action of extermination, of all-out war, of taking no prisoners", in summary, the military wrote in 2015, "to spit on the institutions".

Mencho

Behind all of these deployments, the legal papers that the PGR have displayed before several judges accuse Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho as the architect of the strategies used. The same man that the detained members for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel describe as thin, short hair, brown skin and a mustache, with a harsh voice, cold and precise, and with a stern stare, whom everyone respects and calls "patron".(boss).

The same person that re-invited a cartel that had been officially declared annihilated, The Millennium

Cartel, and he endowed it with a very strict command structure, with very defined grades and levels, with very solid loyalties and paramilitary forces that had been trained by irregular forces from Colombia and Central America, which have allowed him to extend through the territory by blood and fire, and turn into the most powerful, according to the DEA but with that expansion strategy he has declared war on the State..

The hitmen under his command have declared that there is a war and in that war, the traitors and enemies are treated the same. To win it, not only have they been trained and given high-level firepower, which includes grenade launchers and high caliber rifles; it also includes terror tactics: torture, to later burn and kill the agents, and leaving messages and recording videos to later distribute and extend the fear. That is why the Jalisco New Generation Cartel has been the cartel that has most affected the mood of the state and federal forces, and the reason why they have not been able to respond with the same strength: the government has allowed "the drug lord to spit in the face of the State without allowing the latter to defend itself", was what the military wrote in the same letter in 2015.

Capacity and fury

Only 24 days had passed since the CJNG had attacked the Regional Single Force of Jalisco where they had killed 15 of its elements, in which the scene that best describes El Menchos personality would occur. It was May 1st, 2015 and the Army alongside the Federal Police, identified the leader of the Cartel, He was in transit with at least 5 security vehicles accompanying him. The federal forces arrived by air and the battle started. The testimonies collected by the authorities mention that Oseguera Cervantes was traveling with his family, which is escorts protected. The agents that survived and manned the helicopters all arrived at the same conclusion, the people that were firing from land were military trained, their training and level of armament allowed them to be able to take down the Mexican Air Force helicopter gunship.

8 soldiers and one federal police agent died. At least 9 people from the cartel perished, several of the bodies were taken so that there would be no trace. During the confrontation, they contacted his son, Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez, El Menchito, who ordered the deployment of all of the available forces in Guadalajara and the metropolitan area. They closed routes and burned vehicles. They paralyzed the city and they generated a huge confusion, which allowed Mencho’s escape and since then for several months they had lost his scent. The following year in 2016, the authorities stated that he had sought refuge between the states of Colima and Nayarit where he maintained a very low profile.

Little information, too much power

He had five siblings and his family was of limited resources. Since he was of young age, Nemesio which was the name that he went by in honor of one of his godfathers, decided to abandon elementary school in order to work in the field. According to sources, he started out as a caretaker in the avocado fields that belonged to the Valencia family, which would later turn into what would become known publicly as the Millennium Cartel.

Even though it wasn't until the 90´s that he fully had dedicated himself into the drug trade, as an employee of the Valencia, known as the Kings of the Avocado, through that fruit, since the 70´s they were able to cover up the sowing and trafficking of Marijuana and poppy from the township of Aguililla, Michoacán.

Aftermath

The taking down of the Army aircraft, In May 2015, in a place close to Villa Purificacion, Jalisco, Took the lives of 8 soldiers and 1 police officer.

Badly burned survivor of the crash after CJNG shot down the helicopter 

The demolition of the Army aircraft, in May 2015, in a place near Villa Purificación, Jalisco,
left eight soldiers and one Federal Police agent dead.

He decided to immigrate to the USA which was where he started to work as a drug dealer, slanging heroin and methamphetamine alongside Abigael Gonzalez Valencia, El Cuini o El Cachetes(cheeks), leader of the group known as Los Cuinis, arrested in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco on February 28, 2015. After some years has passed, Oseguera would become the brother in law of Abigael, marrying Rosalinda Gonzalez Valencia.

After being arrested alongside one of his brothers in 1994, a district court of Northern California sentenced him to 10 years in prison, accused of being part of a distribution network of heroin, after serving 3 years of his sentence he was deported to Mexico.

On his return, he would become a municipal police officer in Cabo Corrientes and Tomatlan, Jalisco. Even though a short time after he would abandon the institution and concentrate on drug dealing operations, as a bodyguard for Armando Valencia Cornelio, El Maradona.

In 2010 Oseguera Cervantes and Erik Valencia Salazar, El 85, took control of the Millenium Cartel, after Oscar Orlando Nava Valencia, El Lobo(the wolf) was captured October 26, 2009. Leaving his brother Juan Carlos Nava Valencia, El Tigre(the tiger), who according to his testimony, Ramiro Pozos, El Molca, leader of La Resistencia (the resistance),  was betrayed by El 85 and El Mencho.

"The confrontation between the Millenium Cartel and the people loyal to Nemesio Oseguera and Erik Valencia started on May 10th, 2009 and one month later the Jalisco New Generation Cartel would make itself known".

Nemesio Oseguera would be at the top and in charge of the entire operation due to the family link that he established by marrying Rosalinda Gonzalez Valencia and after the capture of El 85. He created the group Matazetas(Z killers), that made themselves known through a video in 2011, and would serve as his first paramilitary group that, according to the case files, would allow him to reconquer the Bay area and take control of the Gulf, stripping it away from Los Zetas.

Military Tribute EPN

5 elements from the National Gendarmerie of the Federal Police, 3 assassins and  3 civilians were the casualties of the ambush by CJNG in Ocotlan. [below and video]

Based on Blood and Betrayals

The diagnosis that the authority has about Nemesio Oseguera´s record on his criminal trajectory, and the vertiginous rise that the organization that he leads has had, has been due to betrayal and with the use of extreme violence, corruption, and extortion. Since Oseguera Cervantes was able to expand his operations in the zones that the CJNG disputes with other organizations in about 22 states of the Mexican Republic, this is based on DEA intel.

His tactics to expand at an accelerated rate consist of the flexibility that the group led by Nemesio has and they have shown to intersperse their historic criminal ties, with the antecedent of the Valencia family, in the insertion of pre-existing conflicts and the use of a speech of self-defense by means of propaganda operations with a military perspective, such is the case of what happened in Michoacán and Guerrero where the hosts of CJNG were able to infiltrate the ranks of the community guards, such information was determined by a study done by consultant InSight Crime, which focuses on themes about national security and organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean.

For example, in the case of Baja California, the foundation detected that El Mencho´s strategy was to dabble in the entity feign to be an "ally" in a confrontation that the local groups were leaders of, in order to later be the catalyst for major conflicts. The mission to obtain the territory consisted of taking advantage of the remnants of the Arellano Felix Cartel to finishing off with the weakening of the hegemony of the Sinaloa Pacific Organization, all of this through bloody confrontations in diverse regions of the state.

On Monday, August 15th, 2016 during the early morning, gunmen belonging to Nemesio Oseguera sent an overwhelming message of their boldness and operational capacity not only to the person who was considered the worlds most wanted drug lord but also to the authorities and the general public opinion. A video surveillance camera in the interior of the exclusive restaurant La Leche in Puerto Vallarta captured the moment that an armed group of men from CJNG kidnapped 6 diners, amongst them were  sons of El Chapo Guzman.

He obtained all of this with a very simple and very loyal structure. The power of the organization revolves around the family clan and according to the judicial statements, supports all of their people that are loyal, they tend to the families of those that die, they pay good salaries and they maintain a great discipline.

Hey created several independent cells. One of those, was described by at least 3 of his former collaborators before a judge, they focus on clandestine laboratories used for processing drugs, another one, on negotiations with their partners in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, a few more towards the training of his paramilitary forces and there is another group training to do surveillance, to serve as messengers to strike deals and payments to their allies, and "take care of" the people that work for other groups. One final cell is dedicated to intelligence and counterintelligence operations. Los Cuinis, which is where the Gonzalez Valencia brothers, take care of the sale and money laundering part of the operation.

War against everyone

As if it were a source of infection one which where it is positioned it begins to spread, intensifying the conditions of insecurity and violence of the territory, the decisions and actions of El Senor de Los Gallos(the lord of the roosters) as he is also known by because of his liking of clandestine cockfights, he has managed to turn the zones that he disputes into true war scenarios, the shootouts and executions are caused by the actions made against him.

Without precedents.

At the start of the "Operacion Jalisco", hitmen working for Nemesio Oseguera brought down a helicopter belonging to the SEDENA(Ministry of Defense) with .50 caliber rifles and grenade launchers RPG-7.

Under that bloodline, during times of dispute between antagonistic groups, it has turned into human mutilations, torture, use of explosives, and high caliber weapons, extortions, kidnappings, murders and even disappearing of bodies by diluting them in acid, which was the fatal outcome that 3 young theater students: Javier Salomon Aceves, Marco Avalos, and Daniel Diaz suffered. They were supposedly mistaken as being members of Cartel Nueva Plaza(new plaza cartel) antagonist of CJNG, were murdered and diluted in acid at a safe house belonging to the cartel in Tonala.

By "error" or by vengeance, El Mencho has displayed his appetite for revenge and proof of such was the ambush on April 6, 2015 carried out on Municipal and State troops assigned to the Regional Single Force of Jalisco, as they were returning to their base in Puerto Vallarta, they were intercepted by gunmen of Nemesio who according to investigative data, had ordered the attack in retaliation to the killing of his compadre(buddy) and plaza boss, Heriberto Acevedo Cardenas aka El Gringo, dead after a dispute against the aforementioned police force which took place only 14 days prior.

In may of 2014, Acevedo Cardenas, who according to intelligence information had El Mencho as his godfather for his wedding, was in charge of the cartel plazas in Tlajomulco, Cocula, Zacoalco, Tapalpa, and Atemajac de Brizuela. In retaliation for an operative against the theft of fuel, his buddy ordered El Gringo to attack a vehicle belonging to the 32nd Infantry Battalion in which the soldiers were transporting part of the decommissioned fuel. The result was 4 dead calcined soldiers in the interior of the vehicle and 2 more that were seriously injured.

As part of his strategies to preserve his spaces of operation free of government intervention, Nemesio Oseguera has been seen tied to the planning of attacks and murders of public servants, such as the case in March of 2013, when the drug lord was suspected of having ordered the murder of then Secretary of Tourism for the state of Jalisco, Jesus Gallegos Alvarez, [above]under the suspected suspicion that the official was collaborating with the Caballeros Templarios. (Knights Templar)

It is also believed that the CJNG was behind the kidnapping and murder of PRI party delegate, Gabriel Gomez Michel, who on September 22, 2014, was deprived of his freedom when he was headed towards the Guadalajara International Airport. Without having clarified the motive of the crime, it is worth mentioning that Gomez Michel was the mayor of El Grullo from 2010-2112, a location known as a bastion of CJNG, where presumably El Mencho moves with complete freedom.

The most recent case of attempts against authorities was perpetrated last Monday, May 21st when a commando at the service of Oseguera Cervantes located and attacked the former attorney general and current head of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security in the entity, Luis Carlos Najera Gutierrez when he was leaving a restaurant in ZMG. Metropolitan area of Guadalajara) Aside from only a mild lesion to the official's hand, 7 other people were injured during the assault.

Priority objective

In January of 2018, upon assuming the position as head of domestic policy of the country in place of Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, Alfonso Navarrete Prida mentioned that as part of his own slogan of "I have to give/show results in very little time" he acknowledges that as far as the war on drugs "the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is the priority objective of the federal government".

This past May 27th, at the conference held to confirm the detention of Rosalinda Gonzalez Valencia, wife of Nemesio Oseguera and leader of the organization of Los Cuinis signaled as financial branch of CJNG, the Secretary of the Interior said he was convinced of the results from the authorities in the dismemberment of cells from that cartel as part of "solid investigations".

Nevertheless, and as part of the process of learning from experience, as he referred: "it is not good to speculate. I know that the entire conviction is there that there are court orders and if there is harm to society in the commission of crimes, well then we need to act with efficiency, and we hope that soon we can give a response. Aside from that, I will not speculate".

Below is a chart of the most violent acts by CJNG/Mencho, beginning on September 26, 2011, Five hooded men introduce themselves as the Matazetas de CJNG, who proclaimed themselves as armed for the people towards the objective of eradicating the Los Zetas Cartel.  Speaking in a five-minute recording, they claimed the assassination of at least 70 “Zetas” in Veracruz in 48 hours, including 35 bodies that were abandoned in the highway of Boca del Rio in front of the World Trade Center.  The people were not Zetas, they were later proven to be innocents with no cartel connections, picked up and slaughtered to be used as CJNG props  to facilitate an erroneous message.