Latest news with #RubenOsegueraGonzalez
CBS News
02-05-2025
- CBS News
Former agent, wife shot dead after he testified against son of powerful Mexico cartel leader
A former Mexican federal agent who testified against the drug trafficker son of the country's most wanted man was shot dead in the central state of Morelos, authorities said Thursday. Ivan Morales was a prosecution witness in the U.S. trial of Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez, a leader of Mexico's violent Jalisco New Generation cartel, who was jailed for life by a Washington court in March. Gonzalez's father is Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes -- better known as "El Mencho" -- who heads the cartel and has a $15 million U.S. bounty on his head. Morales and his wife were shot dead on Wednesday morning as they were traveling in their vehicle in the Temixco area, around 60 miles from Mexico City, according to a police report. State prosecutors are investigating the crime and have not ruled out revenge as a possible motive, local media reported. Morales had a decade ago, on May 1, 2015, survived one of Mexico's bloodiest drug trafficking attacks, when a military helicopter carrying 16 soldiers and two federal police officers was shot down in the western state of Jalisco. Nine people died but Morales managed to escape from the burning wreckage, though he suffered severe burns that left part of his face disfigured. That helicopter was flying in an ultimately unsuccessful mission to arrest "El Mencho." In September, a federal jury convicted the younger Oseguera -- nicknamed "El Menchito" -- of conspiring to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine for U.S. importation and using a firearm in a drug conspiracy. "El Menchito led the Jalisco Cartel's efforts to use murder, kidnapping, and torture to build the Cartel into a self-described 'empire' by manufacturing fentanyl and flooding the United States with massive quantities of lethal drugs," former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in September. Mexican soldiers participate in a military operation during which Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez, aka "el Menchito" son of the leader of the Jalisco next Generation cartel, was arrested, in Guadalajara, Mexico on January 30, 2014. HECTOR GUERRERO/AFP via Getty Images Ruben Oseguera ordered the killings of at least 100 people, personally shot and killed at least two people and ordered subordinates to shoot down the Mexican military helicopter in 2015, prosecutors said. Jalisco cartel targeted by the U.S. The Jalisco New Generation cartel is one of the most powerful criminal gangs in Mexico and has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government. The group has been accused of using fake job advertisements to lure new members and of torturing and killing recruits who resist. In March, a group of people looking for missing relatives found charred bones, shoes and clothing at a suspected training ground for the cartel. On Thursday, the Trump administration on Thursday imposed economic sanctions on three Mexican nationals and two Mexico-based entities involved in a drug trafficking and fuel theft network linked to the Jalisco cartel. The new sanctions targeted top members Cesar Morfin Morfin (dubbed "Primito") and his brothers Alvaro Noe Morfin Morfin and Remigio Morfin Morfin, target the group's fuel theft network. "Primito's luxurious lifestyle has included ownership of exotic animals and dozens of luxury vehicles," the Treasury said in a news release, while releasing an image of a jaguar allegedly seized from Primito by Mexican authorities in December 2023. A jaguar seized from Primito by Mexican authorities in December 2023. U.S. Treasury Department U.S. officials allege Primito is involved in the transportation and distribution of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana into the United States. The Treasury Department says that network has resulted in tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue to the Mexican government and also funds the flow of illicit fentanyl into the United States.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Yahoo
Son of Mexican drug lord sentenced to life in US prison
A top leader of Mexico's violent Jalisco New Generation cartel was sentenced to life in US prison Friday for his bloody role in creating one of the world's most powerful drug syndicates. Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez, 35, is the son of Mexico's most-wanted man -- Jalisco New Generation leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, who has a $15 million US bounty on his head. Known as "El Menchito," Oseguera was convicted by a federal jury in Washington in September of multiple drug trafficking and firearms charges. Pronouncing the life sentence, District Judge Beryl Howell said Jalisco New Generation was a "notoriously violent cartel" and that Oseguera had a "whole team of hitmen" at his command. Howell also ordered Oseguera to forfeit $6 billion in drug proceeds. Anthony Colombo, Oseguera's lawyer, speaking to AFP after the sentencing, said the life term was "greater than necessary" and that he would file an appeal. "This is a situation where no acts were committed in the US or on US territory," Colombo said. "Everything was extraterritorial. This should have been a case tried in Mexico, not in the United States." The US-born Oseguera was second in command of Jalisco New Generation. He was captured by Mexican authorities in 2015 and extradited to the United States in February 2020. The United States has offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest of his father, Nemesio Oseguera, known as "El Mencho." According to court documents, the younger Oseguera directed the smuggling of "staggering" quantities of methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl into the United States. Oseguera also "pioneered" the manufacturing of fentanyl in Mexico to help build his father's cartel into one of the world's most powerful drug syndicates, the Justice Department said. He amassed a huge arsenal of weapons, according to US authorities, and killed a number of people over the years to control and expand the cartel. In April 2015, Oseguera "personally butchered five bound men who owed him money for drugs sold in the United States," prosecutors said in their sentencing memo. "As described by one of the eyewitnesses, (Oseguera) slashed each of the five bound men's throats using a half-moon shaped knife, and after he was done, asked for a clean shirt." In another notorious incident, in May 2015, cartel members acting on Oseguera's orders shot down a Mexican military helicopter hunting Jalisco New Generation leaders, killing at least nine people on board. A Mexican federal police officer who suffered burns over 70 percent of his body survived the crash and was among those who testified at Oseguera's two-week trial. ube-cl/acb
