Mexican Army Special Forces carried out an operation in Tapalpa, Jalisco state, on 22 February 2026 in which Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho, suffered fatal injuries. Within hours, cartel members erected roadblocks and set fire to vehicles and businesses in various states across the country. The ensuing blockades and shootouts left over 70 people dead.
The immediate violence raised the central question surrounding the death of the founder of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG: whether the removal of its leader would cripple the organisation or expose an apparatus able to operate without him.
The Overseas Security Advisory Council, a US State Department security body, concluded that the killing did not bring about a large-scale breakup of the CJNG. Its assessment did allow for some weakening within the cartel’s structure.
Oseguera founded the CJNG and led it for nearly two decades. The National Counterterrorism Center estimated that it had between 15,000 and 20,000 members across eight Mexican states. Its franchise model extends to approximately 40 countries, relying on local criminal partnerships for access to territory, infrastructure and drug-distribution routes.
US analysts said the persistent threat of arrest had already pushed the cartel’s daily business away from El Mencho’s direct control while he was alive. The organisation kept its networks running after his death because leadership and criminal activity were distributed among groups and territories, according to the assessment. OSAC also assessed that the CJNG name may have carried greater weight among network members than personal allegiance to Oseguera.
His stepson, Juan Carlos Valencia González, took over the CJNG after the February 2026 killing. OSAC recorded no significant violent contest for control following the transition. Mexican Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch announced the capture of cartel operatives after Oseguera’s death.
Valencia González was born on 12 September 1984 in Santa Ana, California, and holds dual nationality. The United States raised its reward for information leading to his capture to $25 million, above the $15 million reward previously offered for Oseguera Cervantes.
The United States had designated the CJNG a Foreign Terrorist Organization in February 2025. Pressure on its senior ranks has continued: on August 5, the US Department of Justice announced new charges against five senior CJNG leaders. On 26 August 2026, Operation Factoría targeted a Los Lobos structure linked to the CJNG and disrupted a network involved in international drug trafficking from Ecuador towards Mexico and other international markets.
The assessment does not settle whether the structural weakening will endure, whether Valencia González can retain control, or whether the cartel’s decentralised model will later fragment. It does, however, distinguish the loss of a founder from the destruction of the organisation he built.
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