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Is Mencho replacing Chapo as Drug Cartel King?

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By Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat
 He has the reputation of being intelligent, calculating, and a criminal visionary, he is in the lofty caliber of leader that Chapo Guzman is. He is thought of as the leading candidate to become the new "Mexican drug king", he is; Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes aka "El Mencho". 

Reportedly,  according to sources, informaation 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.  Two years ago Mencho was not among the 10 most wanted list, he now is.

Oseguera Cervantes leads this organization,  also known as Los Zetas Mata, 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 Prison Puente Grande.


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 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 Menchos group.  

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 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.

But, 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 the people later 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)

The emergence of certain militia groups called AUC, notably the Buenavista group known as the H3,  has helped 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 only splinter 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 Menchos 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.

With Los Viagras, Mencho gave the upper portion  of the Guerrero Sur coast, 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 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  rise of power 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.


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


Sources used to write this post-Vanguardia, Reforma-El Observador-Borderland Beat

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