Mexico's military killed El Mencho, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in a major operation Sunday that resulted in nearly three dozen criminal deaths and significant security losses.

Mexico's military killed El Mencho, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in a major operation Sunday that resulted in nearly three dozen criminal deaths and significant security losses. The CJNG, founded in 2009 with an estimated fifteen to twenty thousand members, operates as a transnational criminal organization primarily throughout Mexico with strongholds in Jalisco, Nayarit, and Colima. The cartel emerged from remnants of the Sinaloa Cartel's Milenio faction and has evolved into Mexico's foremost criminal threat, competing directly with the Sinaloa Cartel as of twenty twenty-five. The US State Department designated CJNG as a foreign terrorist organization in February twenty twenty-five, citing its role as a key fentanyl supplier to American markets alongside cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine distribution.