The Mexican army killed the leader of the country's most powerful cartel and one of the most wanted fugitives in the United States.
Cartel members responded to this major victory with a wave of violence across the country.
The killing of the leader of the "Jalisco New Generation" cartel, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, during an attempt to capture him in the state of the same name is the biggest blow to the cartels since the capture of the former boss of the "Sinaloa" cartel - Joaquín Guzmán - El Chapo a decade ago.
In the wake of Oseguera Cervantes' death, gunmen have unleashed violence across the country. Cars set ablaze by cartel members have blocked roads in 20 Mexican states. People have locked themselves in their homes in Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city and capital of Jalisco, and schools were canceled in several states today as security forces were put on high alert across the country. Even Guatemala has beefed up security on its border with Mexico.
The killing could give the government an advantage in its dealings with the Trump administration in the United States, which has threatened tariffs or unilateral military action if Mexico fails to show results in its fight against the cartels.
The long-term effect on security in Mexico, however, remains unclear.
El Mencho, 59, a native of the western state of Michoacan, was the leader of a fast-growing crime group. His ties to organized crime date back at least three decades.
In 1994, he was tried for trafficking heroin in the United States and received three years in prison. After returning to Mexico, he quickly rose through the drug trafficking underworld.
Around 2009, he founded the cartel " Jalisco New Generation, which has become Mexico's fastest-growing criminal organization, shipping cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, and migrants to the United States and innovating violence with drones and improvised explosive devices.
The cartel has built a reputation for audacious attacks on Mexican security forces, including the downing of a military helicopter in Jalisco in 2015 and a spectacular but unsuccessful assassination attempt on Mexico City's police chief, Omar García Harfuch, who is now the country's federal security secretary.
The group has been aggressively recruiting members, experimenting with new ways to reach potential members online, and amassing revenue through fuel theft, extortion, and timeshare scams, among other activities.
Oseguera Cervantes was killed in a battle with soldiers, sent to capture him.
He was killed in an attempted capture while his followers tried to fight off Mexican soldiers.
The Defense Ministry said the army had launched an operation in the southern state of Jalisco to capture Oseguera Cervantes, involving the Mexican Air Force and special forces.
The cartel counterattacked, and in the ensuing confrontation, federal forces killed four members of the criminal group and wounded three others, including its leader, who later died while being airlifted to Mexico City.
Three soldiers were injured and two people were detained in the operation. Missile launchers capable of shooting down planes and destroying armored vehicles were seized at the scene.
Mexico wants to show Trump results in the fight against the cartels.
The death of Oseguera Cervantes will help the Mexican government show results to the United States, which is pressuring its neighboring country to go after drug cartels more aggressively. Both sides said intelligence cooperation contributed to yesterday's operation.
Oseguera Cervantes was facing multiple charges in the United States, and the U.S. State Department offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest. The Trump administration designated his cartel and others as foreign terrorist organizations a year ago.
US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, who was US ambassador to Mexico during Trump's first term, hailed the operation on social media: "The good outweighs the bad. Congratulations to the forces of law and order in the great country of Mexico".
Mike Vigil, the former head of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Agency, said Mexico has sent a "strong message to the Trump administration that they are aggressively and effectively fighting" the most powerful cartels. He added that "most of the information comes from the Mexican armed forces and all the credit goes to Mexico."
The death of the cartel leader leaves a power vacuum.
It is unclear who will succeed Oseguera Cervantes, or whether anyone can.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Jalisco cartel is present in at least 21 of Mexico's 32 states and is active in almost all of the United States. But it is also a global organization, and the loss of its leader could be felt far beyond Mexico.
"El Mencho controlled everything, he was like a dictator of a country," Vigil explained.
His absence could slow the cartel's rapid growth and expansion and initially weaken it against the Sinaloa cartel on several fronts where they or their proxies are fighting. "Sinaloa", however, is embroiled in its own internal power struggle between "El Chapo"'s sons and the faction loyal to Ismael "El Mayo" Sambada, who is in U.S. custody.
Vigil said Mexico should seize the moment to launch an "effective frontal attack based on intelligence."
"This is a great opportunity for Mexico and the United States to work together," he stressed.
Security analyst David Saucedo said that if relatives of Oseguera Cervantes take control of the cartel, the violence could continue. If others take over, they might be more willing to turn the page and continue their operations.
The biggest fear is that the cartel will turn to indiscriminate violence. They could decide to "launch narco-terrorist attacks and create a scenario similar to the one Colombia experienced in the 1990s", a full-scale attack on the government with "car bombs, assassinations and attacks on airplanes".
For decades, the drug cartels "Sinaloa", "Jalisco New Generation", "Northeast", "Gulf Clan" and "Familia Michoacana" and "United Cartels" in Mexico, they generate violence and have networks that extend to the United States, Central America, South America and Europe, as well as criminal cells for other crimes, such as human trafficking, kidnapping and extortion.
The country recorded 30,048 murders in 2024 - 1% more than in 2023, with the majority being cartel-related crimes. Since the end of 2006, when the state offensive against the cartels began, Mexico has recorded over 480,000 murders.
According to the Conflict Data Program, part of the Department of Peace Studies at Uppsala University, between 1989 and 2024, a total of 139,762 deaths related to violence by non-state actors were recorded in Mexico.
Of this total, the Jalisco New Generation cartel is linked to 73,315 cases, representing 53.8% of all deaths caused by organized crime, subversive groups and other non-state actors.
The peak of violence by the group was in 2020, when 11,542 deaths were recorded. This is followed by 2021 with 11,202 deaths and 2022 with 9,191.
On November 1 last year, the mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo - an outspoken critic of the violence organized by the cartels, was shot during a public event for the Day of the Dead.
Initially, the Jalisco New Generation cartel was an armed wing of the Sinaloa cartel, formed to fight another criminal drug organization - the Zetas. However, it separated from the parent organization and began to operate independently in 2011 under the leadership of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes - El Mencho.
"Sinaloa", also known as the Pacific Cartel and founded in 1989, is one of the oldest in Mexico. Based in the state of Sinaloa, it is considered the largest and has the largest presence in the United States. It is led by drug lord Joaquín Guzmán - El Chapo, who is considered the most powerful drug trafficker in the world and is serving a life sentence in prison in the United States.