Cop Turned Hitman Has Officially Replaced 'El Chapo' As World's Most Wanted Drug Lord
A former police officer is now the most wanted drug lord in the world.
Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, aka “El Mencho,” has replaced and surpassed in terms of organization and power Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, considered the most powerful drug lord in the world before his arrest in 2016, the New York Post reported Saturday.
El Mencho was able to replace El Chapo among the drug cartels jockeying for the top slot by having a disciplined and powerful group, according to the Post.
Mencho was once a member of the Jalisco state police force.
Paul Craine, former head of Drug Enforcement Administration operations in Mexico and Central America, told the Post that Mencho’s cartel is like a well-disciplined army.
“Unlike the other cartels, they function like a paramilitary organization,” Craine said.
This was borne out when the cartel recently used a grenade launcher to take out a military helicopter, which resulted in the deaths of nine soldiers.
According to the Post, El Mencho “controls dozens of drug routes to the United States, Europe and Asia.”
The State Department issued a press release saying that the El Mencho cartel traffics in “multi-hundred kilogram quantities of methamphetamine and heroin, and traffics in multi-ton quantities of cocaine.”
Commanding an “army of thousands of bad guys,” according to Craine, the El Mencho cartel is “like an iron hand taking control of Jalisco.” He told the Post its members “have set up carjackings and roadblocks to show their power.”
Mexico is practically a slaughterhouse thanks to the cartels.
There were 29,168 murders in that country in 2017.
The State Department is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of El Mencho.
While Craine is optimistic he will be captured, the former DEA official doesn’t think that will change the high homicide rate in Mexico.
He blames the situation on the Mexican government.
“I have no doubt that El Mencho will be caught, but the violence won’t end until the Mexican government gets serious about strengthening the rule of law and ending corruption,” Craine told the Post.
With El Mencho controlling drug routes into the United States, he offers yet another strong argument for tightening border security.
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