From Petty Thief to Global Kingpin: The Rise of “El Mencho”

​Before he became the architect of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG)—a criminal empire now valued at an estimated $50 billion—Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” was a frequent fixture in the California justice system. His journey from an undocumented immigrant in the San Francisco Bay Area to one of the world’s most wanted men is a stark chronicle of missed opportunities for intervention and a ruthless climb to power.

​In 1986, at just 19 years old, Oseguera Cervantes was first arrested by the San Francisco Police Department for possession of stolen property and carrying a loaded firearm. This brush with the law was merely a precursor. By 1989, he was arrested again for narcotics sales and subsequently deported. He did not stay away for long; he quickly slipped back across the border, returning to the shadows of the U.S. criminal underworld.

​The turning point came in 1992. In an undercover sting at a San Francisco bar, El Mencho and his brother, Abraham, were caught attempting to sell five ounces of heroin. Following a guilty plea to federal drug charges in Sacramento, he served three years in a Texas correctional facility. It was his final deportation in the mid-1990s that set the stage for his metamorphosis.

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​Upon returning to Mexico, Oseguera Cervantes briefly and ironically served as a police officer in Jalisco. However, the pull of the cartels proved stronger than the badge. He soon joined the Milenio Cartel as an enforcer, cementing his position through a strategic marriage to Rosalinda González Valencia. Her family, the heads of the wealthy Los Cuinis trafficking group, provided the financial muscle and “criminal lineage” El Mencho needed to ascend.

​His opportunity for absolute control arrived amidst the chaos of 2009 and 2010. Following the arrest of Milenio leader Oscar Orlando Nava Valencia and the death of Sinaloa kingpin Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel, El Mencho’s faction—then known as the Matazetas—staged a violent internal coup. By 2011, after a bloody purge of rivals, he emerged as the undisputed leader of the newly formed CJNG. Today, his shadow looms over a global network, a far cry from the small-scale dealer once processed through the courts of Northern California.