{"id":496703,"date":"2026-03-01T02:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T02:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/496703\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T02:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T02:31:11","slug":"body-of-notorious-cartel-boss-el-mencho-returned-to-family-by-mexican-authorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/496703\/","title":{"rendered":"Body of notorious cartel boss “El Mencho” returned to family by Mexican authorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

The body of the notorious cartel leader known as “El Mencho,” who was killed<\/a> in a military operation last week, was returned to his family, Mexico’s attorney general’s office said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Nemesio Rub\u00e9n Oseguera Cervantes, who had a\u00a0$15 million<\/a>\u00a0U.S. bounty on his head, was wounded by Mexican security forces in Jalisco and died while being flown to Mexico City, officials said. The death of “El Mencho”<\/a> \u2014 who led the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel<\/a> \u2014 sparked a wave of violence by the cartel across a large swath of Mexico, killing dozens<\/a> of people, including 25 members of Mexico’s National Guard. \u00a0 <\/p>\n

In a statement<\/a> released Saturday, Mexico’s attorney general’s office said it\u00a0performed genetic tests to match the cartel leader’s remains to the family who requested the body. The office did not indicate where the handover took place or identify the relatives who took the body.<\/p>\n

A crucifix, religious candles and a handwritten psalm were found in Oseguera Cervante’s home after the operation, the Associated Press reported<\/a>.\u00a0 Mexican authorities said they tracked one of his romantic partners<\/a> to the hideout.<\/p>\n

\"Mexico<\/p>\n

Soldiers stand guard at the Federal Forensic Service, where the body of cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera, known as “El Mencho,” was believed to be held after a military operation in which he was killed in the state of Jalisco, in Mexico City, Mexico, February 25, 2026.<\/p>\n

Luis Cortes \/ REUTERS<\/p>\n

A source briefed on the operation told CBS News the raid was the culmination of intensified U.S.-Mexico counter-cartel cooperation under Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.<\/p>\n

A defense official told CBS News a counter-cartel task force the Pentagon established under\u00a0U.S. Northern Command in January<\/a>\u00a0“played a role in that the Joint Interagency Task Force regularly works with the Mexican military,” but the official emphasized that this was a Mexican military operation, “so the success is theirs.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mexico’s Defense ministry said in a statement that “complementary information was provided by U.S. authorities within the framework of bilateral coordination and cooperation with the United States.”<\/p>\n

Homeland security officials are also watching for a response from the cartel’s U.S.-based<\/a> trafficking and financial networks.<\/p>\n

The cartel, also known as CJNG, maintains distribution, logistics and money-movement infrastructure across the U.S. While officials told CBS News there is no indication of an imminent threat to the U.S. as a result of the operation that killed Oseguera Cervantes, law enforcement agencies are monitoring any potential increases in violence, coercion or debt-collection activity inside domestic trafficking corridors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In February 2025, CJNG\u00a0was one of several cartels<\/a>\u00a0designated<\/a>\u00a0as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the Trump administration. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Eleanor Watson<\/a> and <\/p>\n

Nicole Sganga<\/a><\/p>\n

contributed to this report.\n <\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

\n Go deeper with The Free Press\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The body of the notorious cartel leader known as “El Mencho,” who was killed in a military operation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,22046,26,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-496703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-drug-cartels","10":"tag-mexico","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}