Name: Cartel leader "El Mencho" killed, sparking Mexico violence; former DEA official explains situation
Uploaded: 2026-02-23T21:40:04.000Z
Duration: 10 min 21 s
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Mike, what's happening in Mexico right now?

Well, this morning, the Mexican army located the Messio Seguera Cervantes, better known as El Mencho, the leader of the Jalisco Generation cartel and the municipality of Talpa de Allende.

This is where he spends a lot of time and where he hides.

So this was one of the most significant actions undertaken in the history of drug trafficking, because we're talking about someone that is almost at the same level as Chapo Guzman and El Mayo Sambada.

He's one of the biggest drug capos in the history of drug trafficking around the globe.

And his cartel operated very much like a paramilitary force.

And they operated in about six of the seven continents around the world.

But not only were they involved and cocaine heroin trafficking, but

they were also major players in the traffic of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl methamphetamine.

They imported precursor chemicals not only from China, but also from India through the port of Lazaro Cardinal.

But they also diversified their criminal activities to include the penetration of the avocado industry, the lemon lime industry, the theft of lumber, penetration of the fishing industry, and

then they were also involved in the theft of petroleum from Pemex pipelines.

Mike, can you explain to me clearly this was a Mexican led operation, but what role did U.S.

Or what role does U.S. intelligence have, typically in an operation such as this?

Sometimes we have law enforcement agencies that operate in Mexico, such as dea, FBI and others.

And in Mexico, we have a huge apparatus of informants that we've been able to cultivate through decades.

That information will now go to the Mexican authorities, and then they may act on that information.

But in this case, I think that the vast majority of the intelligence came from Mexico security apparatus.

And they did a magnificent job in executing the operation because El Mencho had rings of security, you know, literally an army of security that protected him.

So I think that it was a combination of ground forces and then also supported by air support in the form of helicopters armed with high caliber machine guns, such as 50 caliber machine guns.

The response by the cartel has been violent.

Can you talk about what we're seeing in Mexico right now?

Right now we're seeing reprisals on the part of the Jalisco new generation cartel.

They are burning buses, they're shutting down roads, not only in Jalisco, but Michoacan, Colima, Tamaulipas, Guanajuato, and

And what they're trying to do is show that they are still a force to be reckoned with.

That, you know, this was not a lethal blow to them.

So that's what they're trying to do, is show that they're still, you know, in charge.

Oh, we've seen that operations at certain airports have been interrupted.

Have you heard anything about that or know anything about that?

Yeah, there's some airports that have basically limited operations.

Because you'll recall on the second capture of Ovidio Guzman, the cartel went to, for example, to the airport in Culacan and started shooting at commercial airlines landing at the airport.

So they're afraid that they may attack commercial airliners and put people in jeopardy if they don't shut down the operation.

The magnitude of this event is worldwide.

The magnitude of the killing of El Mencho is going to have worldwide impact because El Mencho was one of the biggest drug wars of all time and definitely much more violent than Chapo Guzman, than Mayo Sambada.

So this sends a very strong message that the cartels in Mexico can no longer operate with impunity and, you know, complete, you know.

This sends a message to the cartels that they can no longer operate with impunity and violating with.

You know, I've been giving so many interviews, my brother, but let me.

This, this points to the fact and that the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco Generation Cartel, and

other powerful cartels that operate in Latin America can no longer operate with the impunity of the past, that they can no longer just violate at will the law, the law and order, and

But because this was a very, very effective takedown of one of the biggest leaders, and

it was done, you know, based on the intelligence that they conducted primarily.

Are we going to see more violence before things calm down?

I think that we'll see a little bit of violence, but

here's the thing, is that I think Mexico is going to continue the attack not only on the Jalisco Generation Cartel, but

There's a difference between El Mencho and Mayo Zambada and Chapu Usman.

The big difference is that Mayo Sambada and Chapu Usman allowed independent actions to be taken by their underlings.

He was very much like a dictator of a country, in this case of a cartel, where he controlled every operational aspect of the Jalisco New Generation cartel.

I'm talking about money laundering, talking about logistics, I'm talking about drug production, I'm talking about every single activity.

So whoever comes in behind him is not going to be able to do that.

And clearly there must have been some sort of informant, is what I'm gathering from what you've said.

In order to get to him, to get through all these layers, there had to be somebody with insider knowledge for this operation to be successful.

Well, here's the thing, is that Mexico does a pretty good job, especially the army and the Navy, of collecting intelligence.

Even though it's illegal, they do conduct extralegal wiretaps.

And then they also have established close ties with a lot of the population, which they didn't have in the past.

So now the citizens of Mexico feel more confident and sharing information that they have with the armed forces of Mexico.

But yes, it had to be intelligence that was collected, and

the Mexican army and others acted on it with great efficiency.

I think that the Trump administration has been attacking Mexico, saying they're not doing enough.

And I think that this action contradicts everything that he said about Mexico.