- Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as Tony Montana and the brother of El Mencho, was arrested on December 20th.
- Authorities expected a violent response from the Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG) following the arrest, but this did not occur. The only disturbance reported was the burning of three vehicles in a tow truck business in Jalisco.
- The absence of a response from El Mencho and the CJNG was unusual, as the group has previously carried out brutal revenge attacks in response to operations against its members.
Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, brother of El Mencho and known by the alias Tony Montana, was captured on December 20. Following his arrest, authorities expected a violent response from the Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG).
The states of Jalisco, Colima, and Michoacan deployed security operations in different cities, and even the US Embassy issued an alert for possible reactions from the criminal group.
These, however, did not arrive. The only disturbance reported that day was the burning of three vehicles in a tow truck business in the Jalisco municipality of Encarnacion Diaz. There were no multiple blockades, confrontations, or executions as in other episodes involving the cartel.
The apparent absence of a response from El Mencho after his brother’s arrest was strange for civilians and security forces since, in previous years, operations against “his people” have triggered brutal revenge.
The deadly ambush in April 2015
2015 began with a couple of hard blows to the four-letter cartel. In February, Reynaldo Bedolla Palma, El Comander, or El Chispa, who was identified as one of the ringleaders of the group in Jalisco, was murdered. He was presumably one of those involved in the disappearance of Humberto Gómez Arévalo, a Movimiento Ciudadano councilman in Puerto Vallarta, and dancer Erika Cueto Vázquez, who was apparently “kidnapped” on different dates.
El Chispa had charges against him for drug trafficking, possession of firearms, and homicide, crimes for which he was imprisoned for only five months. Federal forces killed him during an almost ten-hour shootout in an apartment complex in the Villas del Rio neighborhood in Puerto Vallarta.
Then, on March 23, Heriberto Acevedo Cardenas, alias El Gringo, succumbed to bullets during a confrontation with the FUJ in Zacoalco de Torres.
According to the prosecutor at the time, Luis Carlos Nájera Gutiérrez, El Gringo was the plaza chief in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Cocula, Zacoalco de Torres, Tapalpa, and Atemajac de Brisuelas. In addition, newspaper reports indicated that he was responsible for introducing a new way of executing enemies of the CJNG, which consisted of sticking dynamite to their bodies and lighting the fuse.
The CJNG’s first response to this blow was an attack on March 30 against the then-state security commissioner, Alejandro Solorio Aréchiga, who was unharmed.
The truly heinous episode came a week later, on April 6. That day, some 80 hitmen from the Mencho cartel hid in the undergrowth of the Puerto Vallarta – Guadalajara highway waiting for a convoy of the Fuerza Unica.
According to former prosecutor Nájera’s account shared with El País, the agents were traveling in a caravan of ten vehicles, four of which were engulfed in the CJNG’s curtain of bullets.
The criminal group used 40-caliber grenades, M-60 machine guns, rifles with armor-piercing projectiles, and polished military tactics for the lethal attack. There was no confrontation, as the officers did not even have a chance to see their assailants.
The ambush killed 15 of the 16 police officers who came under the CJNG’s hail of fire that lasted about half an hour. The flames consumed some bodies and vehicles. The attackers, on the other hand, got away without a scratch.
Hours later, an armed commando assassinated the director of the municipal police of Zacoalco de Torres, Miguel Angel Caicedo Vargas. His body was found with signs of torture and cardboard that made it clear that it had all been in revenge for the death of the Gringo.
Marines kidnapped after the capture of ‘La Jefa.’
Rosalinda Gonzalez Valencia, alias “La Jefa,” is one of Jalisco and Michoacan’s most important organized crime figures. In addition to being the wife of El Mencho, she is part of one of the most prolific lineages of criminal group members.
Rosalinda and her seven sisters (Noemi, Berenice, Marisa, Erika, Maria Elena, Abigail, and Estela) are identified as the top administrative authorities of CJNG’s businesses.
Their siblings, the González Valencia brothers, were part of the Los Cuinis clan, linked to money laundering networks through businesses such as hotels, restaurants, and beauty clinics, among others. Their father is Armando Valencia Cornelio, El Maradona, founder of the Milenio Cartel.
On November 15, 2021, elements of the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) captured La Jefa in Jalisco and immediately transferred her to Mexico City. The reason for her arrest, in addition to her links to illicit financial operations, was that she had not complied with her parole agreement.
Rosalinda González had already been apprehended in May 2018 as part of Operation Titan Shield but was released months later after paying a fine of 1.5 million pesos. She was apparently required to report to sign in with authorities periodically, but when she failed to comply, she was considered a fugitive from justice.
A few hours after the recapture of El Mencho’s wife, two Navy agents were “lifted” in the Valle Real neighborhood in Zapopan. They were a corporal driver and a second master of Infantry of the Eighth Naval Zone of Puerto Vallarta. Both disappeared when they were in the parking lot of a Walmart.
According to information obtained by Infobae Mexico, Mencho’s son-in-law, Christian Fernando Gutiérrez Ochoa, 24, was in the vicinity of the supermarket at the time of the event. Presumably, he and his partner, Laisha Michelle Oseguera González (Mencho’s daughter), had orchestrated the whole thing.
Subsequently, the Jalisco State Attorney General’s Office reported that the corporal and the second maestre were located during the night of Friday, November 19, in the Education neighborhood. At the time of their discovery, the man presented some blows while the female officer was intact. Both were found kneeling, with their hands handcuffed and their faces covered.