The United States raises reward for El Mencho to $15 million

The United States has put a new price on the capture of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias El Mencho. On Tuesday, the White House increased the reward for the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) — one of the world’s most powerful criminal organization — to $15 million. This amount surpasses the reward offered for Los Chapitos, the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and matches the reward for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, as well as the amount once offered for Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, who was arrested earlier this year.

“Oseguera is a fugitive,” reads the State Department statement, which describes Mencho as a co-founder of the CJNG and a target of multiple criminal cases in the United States. Washington had previously announced a $10 million reward for his capture in 2017, calling him one of the most dangerous, violent, and elusive drug lords. “Through extreme violence, corruption, and extortion, CJNG has increased its presence in Mexico, engaging in turf battles throughout the country and steadily expanding their territory and control,” authorities warned in previous statements. “Oseguera-Cervantes has rapidly grown CJNG from a regionally based drug trafficking organization into an international organized crime power, involved with the production and distribution of narcotics throughout the world.”

The increased reward is a sign that the United States is adjusting its priorities in its war on drugs as it responds to the new international criminal ecosystem. With El Mayo and El Chapo behind bars, the $15 million offered for El Mencho exceeds the $10 million offered last year for brothers Jesús Alfredo and Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, the current leaders of Los Chapitos and El Chapo’s sons at the top of the cartel hierarchy. The U.S. government had previously offered $5 million for Joaquín and Ovidio Guzmán López, who are now in U.S. custody, with their next hearing scheduled for January in Chicago.

Other high-profile targets include Aureliano Guzmán, El Chapo’s brother and leader of another faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, for whom $5 million is offered. Isidro Pérez Salas, alias El Nini, was captured in November of last year with a $3 million reward on his head. The $15 million reward for Oseguera is only surpassed among Mexican drug traffickers by the $20 million reward for Rafael Caro Quintero, accused of the 1985 murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. The highest reward in the national program is $25 million.

The announcement of the increased reward comes in the final stretch of Joe Biden’s administration, just as Donald Trump’s second term transition takes place ahead of his inauguration on January 20. Trump has already promised to implement tougher measures against drug trafficking. The latest U.S. statement on El Mencho was brief, unlike the earlier release that included specific details on his physical appearance: born in July 1966, 1.72 meters tall, weighing 75 kilos, with black hair, brown eyes, and no recognizable tattoos, marks, or scars.

In recent weeks, the United States has taken further steps to combat the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which has seen rapid growth in the criminal world since its founding in 2009. In September, Rubén Oseguera González — El Mencho’s son and presumed successor — was convicted on drug trafficking and illegal weapons charges by a Washington court. Additionally, the arrest of Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez, El Mencho’s son-in-law, was announced two weeks ago. Gutiérrez had been on the run for three years, using a fake death to evade capture. The U.S. also announced economic sanctions against nine CJNG associates in the Mexican state of Nayarit, placing them on the U.S. Treasury’s “black list.”

That statement also reiterated the United States’ focus on the CJNG structure, as well as on Los Cuinis, the cartel’s armed and financial wing, led by the Oseguera political family. Two new names were added to the list: Audias Flores, El Mencho’s right-hand man, and Juan Carlos Valencia González, his stepson. Both have been linked to the cartel’s leadership, and each has had a $5 million reward for their capture since 2021.

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