This profile is based on a nine-month investigation by The Courier Journal, including a review of state and federal court records and interviews with U.S. drug agents and Mexican police, businessmen, college students and victims' advocates.

What is El Mencho’s real name?

He was born Rubén Oseguera Cervantes on July 17, 1966, in the small farming city of Aguililla in the western state of Michoacán. He later adopted the name Nemesio, some say to honor his godfather. It was shortened to El Mencho and has no other known meaning.

Why is El Mencho so dangerous?

He’s a powerful drug kingpin with 5,000 members spread across every continent except Antarctica. His brutal cartel, the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación, known as CJNG, is blamed for kidnappings, torture, murders, cannibalism and the spread of fentanyl — which has surpassed heroin as America’s deadliest illicit drug.

In this wanted poster, the U.S. announces a rare $10 million reward for help finding El Mencho, a ruthless cartel boss and billionaire. Courtesy of the DEA

El Mencho's American empire: A ruthless Mexican drug lord’s empire is devastating families with its grip on small-town USA

Why is El Mencho in the news now?

The CJNG cartel is blamed for frequent attacks on police, including the Oct. 14 ambush and massacre of 13 officers in Michoacán. And with his key rival, Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, finally sentenced this summer to life in a U.S. federal prison, more attention turns to El Mencho.

Show caption Hide caption Gunmen opened fire on police, killing 13 officers in an ambush in the community of Aguililla, in the Mexican state of Michoacán, on Oct. 14,... Gunmen opened fire on police, killing 13 officers in an ambush in the community of Aguililla, in the Mexican state of Michoacán, on Oct. 14, 2019. Cartel members also torched at least two patrol cars in the ensuing chaos and left signs with threatening messages. Enrique Castro, AFP via Getty Images

Why should Americans be concerned?

CJNG is spread out across America, beyond large cities.

They’re planting roots by buying and renting property in midsize cities such as Kansas City, Kansas, and Lexington, Kentucky — and even in rural unincorporated communities such as Axton, Virginia, with fewer than 7,000 residents. They blanket communities with dangerous drugs, including fentanyl.

The drugs and violence of El Mencho and CJNG extend far beyond the U.S.-Mexico border. Their presence has been discovered in at least 35 states and Puerto Rico. Kyle Slagle/USA TODAY NETWORK

Why was El Mencho’s rise to power unusual?

Unlike some cartel leaders who inherited leadership positions from family dynasties, El Mencho’s parents were farm workers who carved out a living in Aguililla, a city of fewer than 20,000 people in Michoacán — known as the world's avocado capital.

He dropped out of school after the sixth grade to pick avocados.

Has El Mencho ever been in America?

Yes. Court and prison records show he sneaked into the U.S. at least three times and was repeatedly deported.

Around age 19, El Mencho, his brother and other friends and family lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, so he used it as a home base while he tried to build a drug-trafficking business.

Billionaire cartel boss El Mencho began his career as a drug dealing failure. This 1986 booking photo from a San Francisco jail shows one of his arrests. Provided

San Francisco police caught him trying to sell a meager street-level sized stash of crystal meth in 1986. He was deported to Mexico. Within months, he came back to the U.S. and ended up back in a San Francisco jail in 1989, then was deported a second time months later.

Back in the U.S. a third time, he got in much bigger trouble.

El Mencho's sneaked into the U.S. and was caught selling drugs in the 1980s and 1990s in San Francisco. He spent four years in prison and was deported. Provided

El Mencho and his older brother, Abraham Oseguera Cervantes, sold heroin for $9,500 to two undercover officers at the Imperial Bar in San Francisco in 1992. Both ended up in a federal prison, where El Mencho served more than four years before he was deported again.

How did El Mencho become a rising cartel star?

El Mencho made his way to Tijuana, the prominent border town for American tourists and feuding Mexican cartels.

There, he grew his drug-smuggling business into San Diego. Quickly, he made a name for himself at the main entry point into the U.S. that acts as a popular drug plaza for cartels wanting to export their product across the border.

Members of the Arellano-Félix organization, based in Tijuana, decided El Mencho was getting too powerful. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Mexico say the cartel easily could have killed him, but they entered a “gentlemen’s agreement,” ordering him to leave.

Despite his criminal past, El Mencho joined the police force in Tomatlán, a small city south of Puerto Vallarta in the western state of Jalisco.

How did El Mencho find the money to grow his army?

Eventually, El Mencho returned to his native Michoacán, where he joined the Milenio Cartel, an entrenched criminal organization operating since at least the early 1990s.

El Mencho had made a strategic alliance by marrying Rosalinda González Valencia. Her siblings formed a branch of the Milenio Cartel known as Los Cuinis. They forged relationships with Colombian cocaine suppliers to bring shipments into Mexico en route to the U.S. Over time, they amassed wealth that helped bankroll El Mencho’s rise, according to U.S. Justice Department reports.

Was El Mencho a hitman?

Yes, Milenio tapped El Mencho, a skilled sicario — or assassin — to lead one of its cells in Guadalajara as a cartel lieutenant. As a boss, he inspired loyalty while leading his own team of assassins.

El Mencho and his team targeted members of the Los Zetas cartel. They became known as Los Matazetas, or Zeta Killers, vowing to protect residents from the brutal cartel that consisted largely of former special forces operatives. Locals didn’t know that El Mencho would later prove even more violent.

As early as 2010, U.S. drug agents stationed on the front lines in Mexico could sense that El Mencho was an emerging threat, there and in America. Their Mexican police counterparts felt it, too.

How did El Mencho stage a bloody coup for control?

The Milenio Cartel moved its headquarters to Guadalajara, the country’s second-largest city, after a series of attacks by rival cartels. The city, dubbed the Mexican Silicon Valley, is renowned for its colonial plazas of ivory buildings and terracotta roofs — and as the birthplace of powerhouse cartels.

El Mencho, who moved to Guadalajara, rose through the ranks of Milenio and expected to be rewarded with the top position. But when some of the cartel’s leaders were arrested or killed in 2008 and 2009, El Mencho wasn't promoted. Neither were his brothers-in-law, who headed Los Cuinis.

Explore El Mencho's CJNG connections across America. Read

Incensed, they plotted revenge in 2009 and 2010 along with Matazetas and others who were unhappy with Milenio’s new leadership. In a pivotal time in cartel history known as “The Resistance,” El Mencho spearheaded the deadly coup, with the financial backing of his brothers-in-law in Los Cuinis.

They splintered Milenio into two factions — those for El Mencho and those against. El Mencho emerged as the victor in early 2011, and his new cartel was born, christened the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación.

What does El Mencho control?

El Mencho now controls several key drug trafficking routes and hubs in Mexico and gives orders to the “capo,” or plaza boss, similar to a mafia lieutenant.

His cartel dominates much of Guadalajara and controls the outskirts of the state of Jalisco as well other states such as Colima and Michoacán. CJNG has spread to the majority of Mexico's 32 states, with an increasing presence in Tijuana and Mexico City.

As the boss, El Mencho set the piso, or tax, that business owners and independent drug traffickers had to pay the capos for protection.

El Mencho also assumed control of corrupt police officers and politicians.

The drug lord had officially launched his ambitious plan to lead the world’s dominant drug trafficking organization.

Why is El Mencho so powerful?

One key to El Mencho’s success is his discipline. He doesn’t do drugs or drink alcohol to avoid foolish mistakes made by other cartel leaders. He exercises daily, staying in fugitive fighting shape. That enabled him to avoid capture by staying on the run for days in rugged mountains.

He’s also rarely seen, staying in remote compounds that make it harder for police to breach. He spends time on ranches riding horses, racing motorbikes.

He uses extreme violence — acid baths, decapitations and even cannibalism — to inspire fear and compliance. His cartel members post many of these gruesome deaths on social media. This includes videos of torture and murder posted on YouTube, threats broadcast on Twitter and Facebook, and even images of bodies hanging from bridges on Pinterest.

CJNG specializes in corrupting police and officials — and killing the incorruptible.

Nine bodies were left hanging from a busy stretch of highway near Nueva Laredo, Mexico. CJNG hung a banner, at right, taking credit. Social Media

How does El Mencho compare with El Chapo?

DEA agents say El Mencho is more organized and violent than El Chapo.

El Mencho is like a ghost, rarely seen in public. That’s why photos of him on wanted posters are old and blurry.

Help support quality local journalism like this. Subscribe! Get news and insights sent to your inbox. Sign up for email newsletters. Sign up

Even though he commands a billion-dollar enterprise, he doesn’t flash his wealth like historic kingpins known for buying marbled mansions and zipping through the streets of Guadalajara and Mexico City in Lamborghinis and Bugattis.

El Mencho wouldn’t want that lifestyle anyway, according to DEA agents in Mexico who have spent years studying his army and chasing him. They believe he’s most content atop a horse in the mountains of Jalisco, hours away from the bustle of its capital city. He is more drawn to power than money.

He does indulge in betting on bullfights and cockfights. There have been reports he once lost $100,000 on a single bet. That’s certainly possible, agents said, but they aren’t sure if that’s true or just part of El Mencho lore spread by those who glamorize him and the narco life.

What is El Mencho charged with in the U.S.?

El Mencho is the lead defendant in a federal indictment returned in the District of Columbia in 2017 accusing him of leading a continuing criminal enterprise.

He also is charged with conspiring to send large amounts of drugs into the U.S. and using firearms during these drug trafficking crimes. El Mencho also faces meth trafficking charges from a 2013 federal indictment in Gulfport, Mississippi.

What is El Mencho's son charged with in the U.S.?

Rubén Oseguera González, El Mencho's son, is charged in a two-count indictment returned in the District of Columbia in 2017 accusing him of conspiring to send large quantities of drugs into the U.S. and using a firearm during his drug-trafficking crimes.

How did police capture El Mencho’s son without a fight?

The son, known as "El Menchito," was next in line to take over CJNG, until his capture.

Menchito, the son of El Mencho, was next in line to head the dangerous CJNG cartel. Now he's jailed, awaiting extradition to the U.S. Courtesy of the DEA

He’s his dad’s namesake, but the two are different in many ways that made the son more vulnerable.

In June 2015, the Mexican Army and federal police arrested El Menchito in Zapopan, west of Guadalajara. Police found two assault rifles, one engraved with the acronym "CJNG 02 JR" and the other with "Menchito."

He had been arrested the previous year but was released by a judge. El Menchito remains jailed awaiting his extradition to the United States.

He tried to dodge charges by claiming he isn’t El Mencho’s son by birth, a claim DEA agents say is untrue.

How has El Mencho avoided capture?

He’s been on the move for years to dodge the manhunts that began within a year of his 2011 rise to power. He has been known to surround himself with men willing to die for him.

U.S. drug agents and Mexican authorities have teamed to root out El Mencho’s hiding spots at least three times. Police raided his secret compounds in 2012 and 2018 — both times in rural Jalisco. But he always found a way to escape.

During the 2012 raid, a DEA intelligence analyst said El Mencho ordered cartel members to stay inside the house and fire at police. He and his son, Menchito, escaped into the mountains while four cartel members died.

Mexican military also learned El Mencho’s hiding spot and headed to get him in two military helicopters on May 1, 2015, but his men shot down one of the helicopters with a Russian-made rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

CJNG members shot down a Mexican military helicopter May 1, 2015 as soldiers flew toward a cartel compound in rural Jalisco in hopes of capturing cartel leader El Mencho. STR, AFP/Getty Images

Where is El Mencho now?

Investigators believe he is likely hidden under a jungle canopy or in the mountains in rural areas of the western states of Jalisco, Colima or his native Michoacán.

They expect him to be insulated by layers of security, guards who are paramilitary trained and heavily armed.

Related Stories

Mexican drug lord's super cartel infiltrates US small towns

How a Mexican cartel turned a rural area into a hidden cocaine hub

One mistake trapped a desperate dad in a Mexican drug cartel's web. Then he vanished

How this couple ran a ‘redneck’ meth empire in an Appalachian county ravaged by addiction

How a Mississippi trooper almost took down the world’s most powerful cartel boss

Mother searches photos of mutilated dead men, hoping to find her abducted son

Officer disabled after helicopter shot down by rising Jalisco New Generation Cartel

Why is The Courier Journal reporting on a deadly Mexican drug cartel? Because it's here