Mexican drug lord El Mencho has been killed in a military operation, officials announced.
The leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, whose real name was Nemesio Rubén Oseguerra Cervantes, died on Sunday, the Associated Press reported.
The official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, told the news agency that the military operation took place in the western state of Jalisco.
Vehicles then caught fire in Jalisco and other states, causing road closures for several hours. Such tactics are often used by cartels to thwart military operations.
Videos posted on social media showed smoke billowing into the sky above Puerto Vallarta, the main city in Jalisco state, and people rushing through the state capital’s airport in panic.
The U.S. State Department warned U.S. citizens in Jalisco, Tamaulipas, Michoacán, Guerrero, and Nuevo León to remain in safe locations while security operations are underway.
On Sunday afternoon, Air Canada announced it was suspending flights to Puerto Vallarta “due to the continuing security situation.”
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau called the killing “a great development for Mexico, the United States, Latin America, and the world.”
“I watch the scenes of violence in Mexico with great sadness and concern,” Landau added in a post on X.
The U.S. State Department had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to El Mencho’s arrest.
Oseguera Cervantes has been deeply involved in drug trafficking since the 1990s.
He was convicted of conspiracy to distribute heroin in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 1994 and spent nearly three years in prison.
After Oseguera Cervantes was released from custody, he returned to Mexico and continued his drug trafficking activities.
Since 2017, he has been indicted several times in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
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The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is one of the most powerful and fastest growing criminal organizations in Mexico.
The Trump administration designated the organization as a foreign terrorist organization in February.
In 2020, the cartel carried out a daring assassination attempt on the then-capital police chief and now federal security chief in central Mexico City using grenades and high-powered rifles.
The DEA considers it to be as powerful as the Sinaloa Cartel, one of Mexico’s most notorious criminal organizations.
The cartel is present in all 50 states and is believed to be one of the major suppliers of cocaine to the U.S. market.
Like the Sinaloa cartel, it makes billions of dollars from producing methamphetamine and fentanyl.