Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said on Monday that 25 members of the National Guard were killed in six attacks in the state of Jalisco. Leader of new generation drug cartel killed in Jalisco Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes.
Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes — known as “El Mencho” — is the leader of one of Mexico’s fastest-growing criminal networks, notorious for trafficking fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine into the United States and carrying out brazen attacks on government officials who challenge them.
He was killed in a shootout in his home state of Jalisco as the Mexican military tried to capture him. A U.S. defense official told CBS News that the U.S. military played a role in the operation through the Joint Interagency Anti-Cartel Task Force, which often works with the Mexican military through U.S. Northern Command. “This is a Mexican military operation, so success is theirs,” the official stressed.
cartel member Across the country, people responded with violence, blocking roads and setting fire to vehicles.
Also killed were a prison guard, an agent from the State Attorney’s Office and a woman whom García Harfuch did not identify. He also said that about 30 suspects were killed in Jalisco and four others in Michoacán.
Several Mexican states suspended schools on Monday, with local and foreign governments warning citizens to stay indoors after widespread violence broke out.
Members of the National Guard stand guard outside the facility of the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime (FEMDO) on February 22, 2026 in Mexico City. /Photo credit: Daniel Cardenas/Anadolu via Getty Images
(Daniel Cardenas/Anadolu, Getty Images)
President Claudia Sheinbaum urged calm on Monday as authorities said more than 250 cartel roadblocks in 20 states had been cleared. The president is expected to discuss the situation at his daily news conference Monday morning.
Mexico hopes the death of the world’s largest fentanyl trafficker will ease pressure on the Trump administration to take more action against drug cartels, but many remain wary as they wait to see how powerful drug cartels respond.
Worry about more violence
The U.S. Embassy said via The U.S. Department of State’s Department of Consular Affairs posted on social media asking U.S. citizens to continue sheltering in place and said taxi and ride-share services in Puerto Vallarta have been suspended.
Cars began flowing through Guadalajara before sunrise on Monday as the work week began, a marked change from Sunday, when the capital of Jalisco state and Mexico’s second-largest city was almost completely shut down as fearful residents stayed home.
Overnight, more than 1,000 people were trapped inside the Guadalajara Zoo and slept on buses. On Monday morning, mothers carried their toddlers out of buses wrapped in blankets to take much-needed bathroom breaks as police cars guarded the area.
This aerial view shows a burned truck allegedly set on fire by an organized crime gang on a highway near Acatlán de Juárez, Jalisco state, Mexico, on February 22, 2026. /Photo credit: Ulises Ruiz/AFP via Getty Images
Zoo director Luis Soto Rendón said many people had been trapped there since violence broke out in Jalisco and surrounding states at 9am the previous day. Many families are left in limbo, trying to distract their children as they decide they cannot return home to nearby states such as Zacatecas and Michoacán.
“We decided to keep people inside the zoo just to be safe,” Soto said. “There are children and there are old people.”
Irma Hernández, a 43-year-old hotel security guard in Guadalajara, came to work early Monday morning.
She usually takes public transport to work, but the buses weren’t running and she had no way to get across the city. Her boss arranged for a private car to pick her up. She said her family stayed at home and were afraid to leave.
“I’m worried because I don’t know how to get home if something happens,” she said.
Passengers arriving at the city’s international airport on Sunday night were told that there were limited staff at the airport due to the outbreak of violence.
Authorities in the states of Jalisco, Michoacán and Guanajuato reported at least 14 deaths on Sunday, including seven National Guard troops.
Video circulating on social media on Sunday showed tourists in Puerto Vallarta walking on the beach with smoke billowing in the distance.
Crackdown on cartels could be diplomatic coup
David Mora, Mexico analyst for the International Crisis Group, said the capture and outbreak of violence marked a turning point in Scheinbaum’s efforts to crack down on the cartels and ease U.S. pressure.
President Trump is demanding that Mexico do more to combat the trafficking of the deadly drug fentanyl, threatening more tariffs or unilateral military action if the country doesn’t achieve results.
A day after the military attack, Trump on Monday called on Mexico to step up its crackdown on drug cartels.
“Mexico must step up its fight against cartels and drugs!” he wrote in a social media post.
Early indications are that Mexico’s efforts are being well received by the United States.
U.S. Ambassador Ron Johnson acknowledged the successes and sacrifices of Mexico’s armed forces in a statement late Sunday. He added, “Under President Trump and President Scheinbaum, bilateral cooperation has reached unprecedented levels.”
But Mora said it could also pave the way for more violence as rival criminal gangs take advantage of the crackdown on the CJNG.
“This could be a moment when other groups see the cartel being weakened and want to seize the opportunity to expand their control and gain control over the cartel in Jalisco in those states,” he said.
“Since President Scheinbaum came to power, the Mexican military has become more confrontational and more combative against criminal gangs,” Mora said. “This sends a signal to the United States that if we continue to cooperate and share intelligence, Mexico can do it. We don’t need U.S. troops on Mexican soil.”
“El Mencho” is the main target
Oceguera Cervantes was injured during Sunday’s capture in Tapalpa, Jalisco, about two hours southwest of Guadalajara, and died en route to Mexico City, the U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement. The United States has put a $15 million reward on Oseguera Cervantes’ head.
During the operation, the troops came under artillery fire, killing four people on the spot. Three other people, including Oseguera Cervantes, were injured and later died, the statement said.
White House Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt stated on the 1st that the US government provided intelligence support for this operation. “‘El Mencho’ is a top target of the Mexican and U.S. governments because it is one of the largest traffickers of fentanyl into our home country,” she wrote. She praised the work of the Mexican military.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is one of Mexico’s most powerful and fastest-growing criminal organizations, having started operating around 2009.
Matthew Donahue, the DEA’s top agent in Mexico, told CBS News in 2019 that “El Mencho” is “a top priority for the DEA and, frankly, for federal law enforcement in the United States.”
In February 2025, the Trump administration designated the cartel as a foreign terrorist organization.
Scheinbaum criticized the “core” strategy of previous administrations, which was to get rid of cartel leaders, only to trigger violent explosions when the cartels broke up. While she remains popular in Mexico, security concerns have been a focus and she has been under intense pressure to show results against drug trafficking since President Trump took office a year ago.
The Jalisco Cartel has been one of the most aggressive in attacks against the military, including by helicopters, and was a pioneer in using drones to deliver explosives and install landmines. In 2020, it carried out a spectacular assassination in downtown Mexico City using grenades and high-powered rifles against the then head of the capital’s police force and now the federal security minister.
Iran’s foreign minister says they have “every right” to acquire “nuclear energy, including enriched uranium”
How safe is the United States from the threat of polio?
Investigating Trump’s claim that white South African farmers were victims of genocide
