Notorious Violent Mexican Cartel Leader Sentenced to Life Plus 30 Years in Prison for International Drug Trafficking and Firearms Offenses

A U.S.-Mexican dual national and co-founder of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) — an international drug trafficking organization — was sentenced today in the District of Columbia to a term of life in prison plus 30 years to run consecutively for his role in a major drug trafficking conspiracy and ordered to forfeit over $6 billion of drug trafficking proceeds.

“This defendant helped build Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion into a brutal terrorist organization that pumps poison onto our streets and commits horrific acts of violence,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Thanks to the DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, and the Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, he will now spend his life behind bars.”

“Today’s sentencing is a victory for the dedicated men and women in federal law enforcement who have made it their lives’ work to dismantle and degrade the cartels in Mexico,” said Acting Administrator Derek S. Maltz of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). “Menchito was not only extremely violent, he was also one of the earliest architects of fentanyl trafficking that led to the deadliest chapter of the synthetic opioid crisis, and responsible for flooding the country with methamphetamine. This country is undoubtedly safer now that he will spend the rest of his life in federal prison. Let this be a warning to members of CJNG, its associates, and the other cartels that DEA’s work is far from over. Americans are depending on us to continue to fight evil and dismantle the cartels.”

According to court documents, Ruben Oseguera-Gonzalez, known as El Menchito, 34, led the CJNG for nearly seven years in Mexico and oversaw the importation of multi-tonnage quantities of drugs into the United States. In addition to other CJNG operations, Oseguera-Gonzalez is responsible for trafficking more than 50 metric tons of cocaine and supervising drug labs that produced more than 1,000 metric tons of methamphetamine in Mexico. In 2013, Oseguera-Gonzalez was one of the first contributors to the fentanyl epidemic in the United States, pledging to “do it big” and build an empire from counterfeit oxycontin pills laced with fentanyl.

According to court documents, along with his father, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho and who remains a fugitive, Oseguera-Gonzalez founded the CJNG, which is based in Jalisco, Mexico, and is arguably the most prolific and most violent cartel in Mexico today. For instance, Oseguera-Gonzalez backed CJNG’s criminal drug trafficking empire with an arsenal of weapons and by committing and directing heinous acts of violence. He brutally killed five people who owed him drug money and personally shot a rival cartel member and a subordinate. He carried firearms, including a rifle and grenade launcher that bore his moniker, which he used to threaten Mexican law enforcement upon his arrest. Oseguera-Gonzalez also directed the 2015 attack on a Mexican military helicopter that was pursuing Oseguera-Gonzalez and his father, the top leader of the CJNG. The helicopter was shot down, allowing Oseguera-Gonzalez and his father to evade capture while killing at least nine Mexican service members and permanently disfiguring at least one other. Additionally, according to statements made in court and trial testimony, Oseguera-Gonzalez ordered the murder of more than 100 people, some of which he murdered himself.

The DEA Los Angeles Field Division investigated the case with the assistance of the U.S. Marshals Service. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided critical assistance with securing the February 2020 extradition of Oseguera-Gonzalez and facilitating important evidence. The Criminal Division’s Office of Enforcement Operations provided significant assistance. The Justice Department thanks Mexican authorities for their assistance with this important prosecution.

Trial Attorneys Jonathan Hornok, Lernik Begian, and Douglas Meisel, and former Trial Attorneys Kaitlin Sahni and Kate Naseef of the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section prosecuted the case. 

This effort was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at www.justice.gov/OCDETF.