Homeland security officials are looking for answers from US-based cartel networks after the leader’s assassination
Homeland security officials are looking at what they have to say Jalisco New Generation Cartel’s US smuggling networks and financial networks behind Mexican security forces he killed Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes in the raid on Sunday.
The carrier, also known as CJNG, maintains a distribution, processing and remittance infrastructure throughout the United States. Although officials say there is no indication of an imminent threat to the US because of the activity that killed Cervantes, law enforcement agencies are monitoring any possible increase in violence, coercion or debt collection within domestic trafficking corridors.
Mexican authorities in recent months have also transferred dozens of cartel suspects to U.S. custody in several batches, part of a broader crackdown that has put the CJNG and other groups under constant pressure.
According to a source briefed on the operation, the raid was the culmination of a strengthening of US-Mexico counter-cartel cooperation under Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. Intelligence sharing has grown significantly in recent months through joint joint channels with the US Northern Command.
A defense official told CBS News on Sunday that the counter-terrorism team the Pentagon established under the US Northern Command in January “participated in the fact that the Joint Interagency Task Force works regularly with the Mexican military,” but the official emphasized that this was the work of the Mexican military, “so the success is theirs.”
Mexico’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement that “corresponding information has been provided to American authorities within the framework of collaboration and cooperation with the United States.”
No American personnel were present on the project. The source described a “combination of efforts” in which Mexican special forces carried out the operation while US personnel provided intelligence and operational advice from outside Mexico. The source did not reveal the exact nature of the US intelligence support, but pointed to targeted operations with a high cart value, where US agencies rely on long-term human sources and the collection of technical information on cartels’ movements, vehicles and communications.
More than 20 members of the Mexican security forces have been killed in revenge attacks so far, the source said. The CJNG has evolved into a diversified international criminal enterprise with paramilitary capabilities. It used drones to carry C4 explosives and dropped heavy weapons on conflict zones inside Mexico. Despite losing its founder, the cartel is expected to retain a large operating capacity, according to the source.
However, a succession struggle within the CJNG has begun, as regional cartel bosses vie for power and control. In the past, the removal of cartel leaders in Mexico has often led to the disintegration of their organizations and secondary violence, rather than their collapse. Early indications are that this pattern is repeating itself, with reprisal attacks and destabilization efforts in all 20 Mexican states.
