The Brutal Rise of El Mencho: Mexico's Next
El Mencho
Chapo's sons had made the mistake of partying on the turf of Sinaloa's newest and most dangerous rival: an upstart cartel boss named RubÃ©n Oseguera Cervantes â alias "El Mencho." A former Jalisco state policeman who once served three years in a U.S. prison for selling heroin   Mencho  heads what many experts call Mexico's fastest-growing  deadliest and  according to some  richest drug cartel â the Cartel Jalisco Nueva GeneraciÃ³n  or CJNG. Although he's basically unknown in the U.S.   Mencho  has been indicted in a D.C. federal court on charges of drug trafficking  corruption and murder  and currently has a $5 million bounty on  his  head. Aside from perhaps Rafael Caro Quintero â the aging drug lord still wanted for the 1985 torture and killing of a DEA agent â he is probably America's top cartel target. "It was Chapo " says a DEA source. "Now it's  Mencho ."
CJNG specialize in methamphetamine  which has higher profit margins than cocaine or heroin. By focusing on lucrative foreign markets in Europe and Asia  the cartel has simultaneously maintained a low profile in the U.S. and built up a massive war chest  which some experts estimate is worth $20 billion. "These guys have way more money than Sinaloa " says a former DEA agent who spent years hunting the cartel in Mexico (and who requested anonymity for security reasons). According to another U.S. investigator  " Mencho  has been very  very aggressive â and so far  unfortunately   it 's paid off."
"We've seen it become very bloody  and a lot of people attribute that to  El Mencho himself  " says Scott Stewart  a senior cartel analyst at Stratfor  a private intelligence firm. "Wherever they try to muscle in  it creates bodies."
 Mencho  has also displayed a savagery that's extreme even by narco standards. For the admittedly brutal Chapo  killing was a necessary part of business. For  Mencho   it seems more like sadism as public spectacle. There have been mass killings  such as the 35 bound and tortured bodies dumped in the streets of Veracruz during evening rush hour in 2011. Two years later  CJNG operatives raped  killed and set fire to a 10-year-old girl whom they (mistakenly) believed was a rival's daughter. In 2015  CJNG assassins executed a man and his elementary-school-age son by detonating sticks of dynamite duct-taped to their bodies  laughing as they filmed the ghastly scene with their phones. "This is ISIS stuff " says one DEA agent who has investigated the cartel. "The manner in which they kill people  the sheer numbers â it's unparalleled even in Mexico."
Mori  35  is square-jawed and earnest  with the friendly authority of a park ranger  albeit one who carries a Glock. But he's also "a bulldog when it comes to investigations " says his supervisor  DEA Special Agent in Charge James Comer. Prior to joining the DEA  Mori worked as an L.A. County sheriff's deputy on patrol in Compton. Now  as the agency's foremost investigator into CJNG â and the agent who helped prepare the 2014 indictment against  Mencho  â he knows the cartel probably better than anyone in America. "I've been working these guys pretty much since I started " Mori says. "This is what I do."
The first time  Mencho  popped up on Mori's radar was a fluke. Back in 2010  Mori was working on an unrelated money-laundering case with a field agent in Guadalajara who told him about a fresh target  a new cartel: "They're a huge problem down here in Jalisco. When Chapo gets picked up  these guys are gonna run the show."
But as  Mencho  quickly built  his  business   his  operation grew more complex.  He  invested heavily in submarines  which  he  used to bring in narcotics from South America. (According to the former DEA agent   he  even hired Russian naval engineers to help design the subs.)  He  avoided American scrutiny by focusing on overseas markets such as Australia  where â as Mori explains â a kilo of cocaine can fetch quadruple the price it does in the States. ("You send five tons to Australia  it's like doing 20 here "  he  says.)  Mencho  also employed more earthly techniques  like using fashion models to smuggle in drugs. According to the former field agent  CJNG traffickers would pose as magazine photographers  complete with fake credentials  and fly into Mexico with "talent" from Colombia and Venezuela. Authorities would be so distracted by the women that the drugs would slip right in.
 Mencho  leveraged  his  power using the twin tools of corruption and intimidation. Captured CJNG members have testified about how he hates disobedience and likes to make his victims beg forgiveness before killing them. "This is a guy who'll execute your whole family based on not much more than a rumor " a source says. "He just has zero regard for human life." According to one source who met Mencho  he's a shrewd businessman who doesn't drink  doesn't have lovers like other cartel leaders do and trusts almost no one.
The former field agent says he's heard multiple taped phone calls of  Mencho  talking to cartel underlings. "These guys are killers themselves  and they were afraid " the agent says. "He was ordering them around. I don't think I heard any where he was calm. But he wasn't a hothead. The yelling was very controlled. He knew what he was doing."
 Mencho 's ferocity inspired similar devotion from his troops. "One time there was a big shootout at a fair " the former agent recalls. "Someone threw a grenade  and some [CJNG] guys fell on it to avoid  Mencho  getting killed." According to the agent  Mencho's ruthlessness also made it hard to recruit informants against him. The agent once had a source who got close â he had an address for  Mencho . But when the cartel realized he was sniffing around  they kidnapped the man as well as his teenage son. "They found the father's body a month later " the agent says. "He'd been tortured. They never found the kid."
 Mencho  also bought off cops. Jalisco's governor  AristÃ³teles Sandoval  has said that when he first took office  the state's "greatest vulnerability was the infiltration of organized crime" into its police forces. According to a report by Reuters  at one point CJNG had more than half of Jalisco's municipal police on the payroll â some at more than five times their salaries. "People stopped trusting the police " said Jalisco Attorney General Eduardo Almaguer. And the cops  Mencho  couldn't buy  he terrorized. According to the former DEA field agent  CJNG inspired an extraordinary degree of fear in Mexican police  above and beyond that of most cartels. "They were afraid of [Mencho] " he says. "They didn't want to piss him off."
Then there was the time (never publicly reported) that  Mencho  sent a severed pig's head to the attorney general in Mexico City as a warning. "They put it right on his doorstep  in an ice chest " the former field agent says. "I was surprised it was only a pig."
A recently surfaced telephone call shows how casually  Mencho  wields the threat of violence. On the recording   he  can be heard talking to a local police commander (call sign "Delta One") whose officers were apparently being too zealous for  Mencho 's liking. An abridged translation follows:
While CJNG were ramping up operations  the DEA was preoccupied with Chapo's Sinaloa cartel  helping  Mencho  fly under the radar. "All the cables out of headquarters  all the intelligence reports  were focused on Chapo " the former field agent says. "The bosses in D.C. were like  'We've never heard of [CJNG].' They didn't think they were important." Partly as a result  Mori's investigation had difficulty gaining traction. "We hit a dead end " he says. "We didn't get close to  Mencho   didn't get any sources  didn't get any wiretaps. We knew we had this big player  this up-and-coming narco â but we had no 'in' to investigate him."
So the case was put on the back burner  and for the next few years  CJNG became an afterthought. "A few people at headquarters and in Mexico saw what was going on " Mori says. "But if you asked most DEA agents [back then] if they knew who  Mencho  was  they would say no."
 Mencho  must have dreamed of more than avocados  however  because within a few years  he  had packed up and moved north to California. By 1986   he  was living in the Bay Area  where  he  was arrested by San Francisco police for possession of stolen property and a loaded gun. A booking photo from the incident shows a 19-year-old Mencho wearing a hoodie and a blank expression  acne on  his  baby face. Two months later   his  first child was born.
Chapo's sons had made the mistake of partying on the turf of Sinaloa's newest and most dangerous rival: an upstart cartel boss named RubÃ©n Oseguera Cervantes â alias " [TGT] ." A former Jalisco state policeman who once served three years in a U.S. prison for selling heroin   Mencho  heads what many experts call Mexico's fastest-growing  deadliest and  according to some  richest drug cartel â the Cartel Jalisco Nueva GeneraciÃ³n  or CJNG. Although he's basically unknown in the U.S.   Mencho  has been indicted in a D.C. federal court on charges of drug trafficking  corruption and murder  and currently has a $5 million bounty on  his  head. Aside from perhaps Rafael Caro Quintero â the aging drug lord still wanted for the 1985 torture and killing of a DEA agent â he is probably America's top cartel target. "It was Chapo " says a DEA source. "Now it's  Mencho ."
CJNG specialize in methamphetamine  which has higher profit margins than cocaine or heroin. By focusing on lucrative foreign markets in Europe and Asia  the cartel has simultaneously maintained a low profile in the U.S. and built up a massive war chest  which some experts estimate is worth $20 billion. "These guys have way more money than Sinaloa " says a former DEA agent who spent years hunting the cartel in Mexico (and who requested anonymity for security reasons). According to another U.S. investigator  " Mencho  has been very  very aggressive â and so far  unfortunately   it 's paid off."
"We've seen it become very bloody  and a lot of people attribute that to   [TGT]  himself  " says Scott Stewart  a senior cartel analyst at Stratfor  a private intelligence firm. "Wherever they try to muscle in  it creates bodies."
 Mencho  has also displayed a savagery that's extreme even by narco standards. For the admittedly brutal Chapo  killing was a necessary part of business. For  Mencho   it seems more like sadism as public spectacle. There have been mass killings  such as the 35 bound and tortured bodies dumped in the streets of Veracruz during evening rush hour in 2011. Two years later  CJNG operatives raped  killed and set fire to a 10-year-old girl whom they (mistakenly) believed was a rival's daughter. In 2015  CJNG assassins executed a man and his elementary-school-age son by detonating sticks of dynamite duct-taped to their bodies  laughing as they filmed the ghastly scene with their phones. "This is ISIS stuff " says one DEA agent who has investigated the cartel. "The manner in which they kill people  the sheer numbers â it's unparalleled even in Mexico."
Mori  35  is square-jawed and earnest  with the friendly authority of a park ranger  albeit one who carries a Glock. But he's also "a bulldog when it comes to investigations " says his supervisor  DEA Special Agent in Charge James Comer. Prior to joining the DEA  Mori worked as an L.A. County sheriff's deputy on patrol in Compton. Now  as the agency's foremost investigator into CJNG â and the agent who helped prepare the 2014 indictment against  Mencho  â he knows the cartel probably better than anyone in America. "I've been working these guys pretty much since I started " Mori says. "This is what I do."
The first time  Mencho  popped up on Mori's radar was a fluke. Back in 2010  Mori was working on an unrelated money-laundering case with a field agent in Guadalajara who told him about a fresh target  a new cartel: "They're a huge problem down here in Jalisco. When Chapo gets picked up  these guys are gonna run the show."
But as  Mencho  quickly built  his  business   his  operation grew more complex.  He  invested heavily in submarines  which  he  used to bring in narcotics from South America. (According to the former DEA agent   he  even hired Russian naval engineers to help design the subs.)  He  avoided American scrutiny by focusing on overseas markets such as Australia  where â as Mori explains â a kilo of cocaine can fetch quadruple the price it does in the States. ("You send five tons to Australia  it's like doing 20 here "  he  says.)  Mencho  also employed more earthly techniques  like using fashion models to smuggle in drugs. According to the former field agent  CJNG traffickers would pose as magazine photographers  complete with fake credentials  and fly into Mexico with "talent" from Colombia and Venezuela. Authorities would be so distracted by the women that the drugs would slip right in.
 Mencho  leveraged  his  power using the twin tools of corruption and intimidation. Captured CJNG members have testified about how he hates disobedience and likes to make his victims beg forgiveness before killing them. "This is a guy who'll execute your whole family based on not much more than a rumor " a source says. "He just has zero regard for human life." According to one source who met Mencho  he's a shrewd businessman who doesn't drink  doesn't have lovers like other cartel leaders do and trusts almost no one.
The former field agent says he's heard multiple taped phone calls of  Mencho  talking to cartel underlings. "These guys are killers themselves  and they were afraid " the agent says. "He was ordering them around. I don't think I heard any where he was calm. But he wasn't a hothead. The yelling was very controlled. He knew what he was doing."
 Mencho 's ferocity inspired similar devotion from his troops. "One time there was a big shootout at a fair " the former agent recalls. "Someone threw a grenade  and some [CJNG] guys fell on it to avoid  Mencho  getting killed." According to the agent  Mencho's ruthlessness also made it hard to recruit informants against him. The agent once had a source who got close â he had an address for  Mencho . But when the cartel realized he was sniffing around  they kidnapped the man as well as his teenage son. "They found the father's body a month later " the agent says. "He'd been tortured. They never found the kid."
 Mencho  also bought off cops. Jalisco's governor  AristÃ³teles Sandoval  has said that when he first took office  the state's "greatest vulnerability was the infiltration of organized crime" into its police forces. According to a report by Reuters  at one point CJNG had more than half of Jalisco's municipal police on the payroll â some at more than five times their salaries. "People stopped trusting the police " said Jalisco Attorney General Eduardo Almaguer. And the cops  Mencho  couldn't buy  he terrorized. According to the former DEA field agent  CJNG inspired an extraordinary degree of fear in Mexican police  above and beyond that of most cartels. "They were afraid of [Mencho] " he says. "They didn't want to piss him off."
Then there was the time (never publicly reported) that  Mencho  sent a severed pig's head to the attorney general in Mexico City as a warning. "They put it right on his doorstep  in an ice chest " the former field agent says. "I was surprised it was only a pig."
A recently surfaced telephone call shows how casually  Mencho  wields the threat of violence. On the recording   he  can be heard talking to a local police commander (call sign "Delta One") whose officers were apparently being too zealous for  Mencho 's liking. An abridged translation follows:
While CJNG were ramping up operations  the DEA was preoccupied with Chapo's Sinaloa cartel  helping  Mencho  fly under the radar. "All the cables out of headquarters  all the intelligence reports  were focused on Chapo " the former field agent says. "The bosses in D.C. were like  'We've never heard of [CJNG].' They didn't think they were important." Partly as a result  Mori's investigation had difficulty gaining traction. "We hit a dead end " he says. "We didn't get close to  Mencho   didn't get any sources  didn't get any wiretaps. We knew we had this big player  this up-and-coming narco â but we had no 'in' to investigate him."
So the case was put on the back burner  and for the next few years  CJNG became an afterthought. "A few people at headquarters and in Mexico saw what was going on " Mori says. "But if you asked most DEA agents [back then] if they knew who  Mencho  was  they would say no."
 Mencho  must have dreamed of more than avocados  however  because within a few years  he  had packed up and moved north to California. By 1986   he  was living in the Bay Area  where  he  was arrested by San Francisco police for possession of stolen property and a loaded gun. A booking photo from the incident shows a 19-year-old Mencho wearing a hoodie and a blank expression  acne on  his  baby face. Two months later   his  first child was born.