El Mencho Age, Death, Girlfriend, Wife, Children, Family, Biography » StarsUnfolded

Some Lesser Known Facts About El Mencho

• Reportedly, his first name was ‘Rubén’ or ‘Nemesio.’

• He was also known by many other names, such as ‘Nemecio,’ ‘Rubén Acerguera Cervantes,’ ‘Lorenzo Mendoza,’ and ‘Nemesio Oseguera Ramos.’

• According to some reports, his birthname was Rubén, but he changed it to Nemesio to honour his godfather.

• In the U.S., he hid his identity and used names like ‘Rubén Ávila,’ ‘José López Prieto,’ ‘Miguel Valadez,’ ‘Carlos Hernández Mendoza,’ and ‘Roberto Salgado.’

• In 1986, he lived in San Francisco.

• According to some border records, in the late 1980s, he used fake names to cross the U.S.-Mexico border many times.

• The DEA and Mexican investigators claimed that he, along with his brother-in-law, Abigael González Valencia (alias ‘El Cuini’), started making and selling methamphetamine in Redwood City during this time.

• After some months, the police authorities deported him to Mexico, but he returned to the U.S. and went back to San Francisco.

  

  Mugshots of El Mencho taken in 1986 and 1989

• In September 1992, federal agents arrested him in Sacramento, California, on drug charges.

• Court records claimed that he and his brother Abraham once met at the Imperial, a San Francisco bar, and made a heroin deal, i.e. five ounces for $9,500.

• Reportedly, Abraham handled the deal while El Mencho kept an eye on the police.

• During this time, El Mencho was 26 and younger than Abraham, but smart enough to spot the police trap.

• Reportedly, police heard him through a wiretap. In the conversation, they heard that he was warning his brother never to deal with them again because they were undercover agents.

• After three weeks of the deal, the police arrested both of them.

• During the court proceedings, El Mencho claimed that he was innocent and was not part of the heroin deal.

• In the 1990s, Abraham was granted 10 years’ jail in California.

• El Mencho was granted five years in prison and was kept at Big Spring Correctional Centre in Texas, where many illegal immigrants are kept.

• After three years, when he was thirty years old, he got out on parole and was deported to Mexico, where he joined the police in Cabo Corrientes and Tomatlán, in Jalisco state.

• Later, he left the police and began working full-time for Milenio Cartel, a Mexican criminal organisation.

• After that, he married Rosalinda González Valencia, the sister of a leader in the Cartel, to build relationships within the group. They had three children named Jessica Johanna Oseguera González, Laisha, and Rubén Oseguera González (“El Menchito”).

  

  An old picture of El Mencho with his children

• Gradually, he became a top person in the group’s organised crime.

• He worked in the assassin squad which protected drug king Armando Valencia Cornelio, known as ‘El Maradona.’

• On 12 August 2003, Mexican authorities arrested his leader.

• During that time, Los Zetas, with the help of the Gulf Cartel, attacked the Milenio Cartel in Michoacán. After that, the Valencia family fled to Jalisco.

• El Mencho moved to Guadalajara with his father-in-law, José Luis González Valencia (‘El Quini’), and Román Caballero Valencia.

• In Jalisco, El Mencho and the Milenio Cartel started working with a Sinaloa Cartel group led by Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Coronel, who was a top drug leader.

• El Mencho’s group looked after drugs, money, and killings for the Sinaloa Cartel in Colima and Jalisco.

• On 28 October 2009, the Milenio Cartel’s main leader, Óscar Orlando Nava Valencia (‘El Lobo’) got arrested.

• On 6 May 2010, El Mencho’s brother, Juan Carlos (‘El Tigre’), was arrested. In July 2010, Coronel died in a shootout with the Mexican Army.

• After that, the Milenio Cartel started breaking up, and El Mencho tried to become the leader of the cartel.

• El Mencho demanded from the other group that they hand over Gerardo Mendoza (‘Tecato’ or ‘Cochi’), who had killed men who worked for El Mencho in Tecomán, Colima.

• The other group denied, which started an internal war. After that, the Milenio Cartel split into two sides named La Resistencia (The Resistance) and Los Mata Zetas (The Zeta Killers), which was led by El Mencho.

• After that, El Mencho’s group started a propaganda campaign and accused rivals of extorting civilians, businesses, and officials.

• El Mencho became the leader of CJNG and strengthened his power. He started expanding his territory and bribing officials.

• Gradually, the CJNG grew from a small gang into a top criminal group in Mexico. El Mencho became one of Mexico’s most wanted criminals.

• After that, CJNG started attacking Mexico’s security forces directly, and El Mencho became the main enemy of the state.

• Various government sources claimed that he operated all CJNG drug operations in Jalisco, Colima, and Guanajuato, where he built a strong base for making and selling methamphetamine.

• CJNG controls drug trafficking firmly in Jalisco, Colima, Guanajuato, Nayarit, and Veracruz.

• In Morelos, Guerrero, and Michoacán, CJNG fights rival drug groups.

• On 27 September 2011, Mexico issued an arrest warrant for El Mencho. The police officials offered 2 million pesos for tips leading to his capture.

• He was charged with organised crime and keeping illegal firearms.

• El Mencho’s brother, Antonio, lived in the U.S., and he was released from a Mississippi prison in 2001 after serving time for property damage.

• Between 2014 and 2016, CJNG lost ground only in Mexico City.

• CJNG links with crime groups in the U.S., Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. They traded in cocaine and methamphetamine across the globe.

• El Mencho worked with brother-in-law Abigael González Valencia, who operated Los Cuinis in partnership with CJNG.

• In March 2014, a U.S. court in Washington, D.C., accused El Mencho on the basis of DEA investigations. He was charged with drug trafficking and leading a criminal group.

• The Mexican police announced that his son, Rubén, was a main CJNG leader and was arrested in 2014.

• After that, he was released multiple times for lack of evidence, but police re-arrested him each time on new charges. Rubén Oseguera González faced more arrests and charges over time.

• On 28 February 2015, the Mexican Navy arrested his brother-in-law, Abigael González Valencia.

  

  Abigael González Valencia, alias ‘El Cuini’, after being escorted by DEA agents

• On 19 March 2015, in Ocotlán, Jalisco, CJNG gunmen attacked a Federal Police convoy in which 11 people died, which included five police, three civilians, and three CJNG members.

• On 23 March 2015, Heriberto Acevedo Cárdenas (“El Gringo” or “El Güero”), a close associate of El Mencho, died in a shootout with Federal Police in Zacoalco de Torres, Jalisco, along with three other CJNG suspects.

• Acevedo ran CJNG cells in Zacoalco, Tlajomulco, Cocula, Tapalpa, and Atemajac de Brizuela.

• On 30 March 2015, in Zapopan, Jalisco, CJNG gunmen ambushed a convoy with Alejandro Solorio Aréchiga, Jalisco’s security commissioner. No one died in the shootout.

• On 6 April 2015, in San Sebastián del Oeste, Jalisco, CJNG blocked a road with a burning vehicle. They fired on the Jalisco State Police convoy in which 15 police died, and 5 were wounded. Reportedly, it became the deadliest police attack since 2010 in Mexico.

• On the same day, Miguel Ángel Caicedo Vargas, Zacoalco de Torres police chief, was killed by CJNG hitmen.

• On 8 April 2015, the U.S. Treasury’s OFAC banned El Mencho under the Kingpin Act for drug smuggling. The decision came after a Treasury-DEA investigation with Mexico.

• It targeted El Mencho, CJNG, his brother-in-law Abigael González Valencia, and Los Cuinis. After that, their U.S.-based assets were frozen, and they were no longer permitted to do business with U.S. citizens.

• On 1 May 2015, Mexico started a military action, Operation Jalisco, to fight these crime groups and catch their leaders.

• The fighting then spread in Villa Purificación, Jalisco. El Mencho’s gunmen shot down a Mexican Army helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade, which took the lives of nine soldiers.

• These battles occurred across several towns in Jalisco. The CJNG blocked many roads near Guadalajara to slow down the police so that El Mencho could escape.

• During the operation, the group burned 39 buses, 11 banks, and 16 gas stations. The attacks hit 20 towns in Jalisco and three nearby states.

• The government thought that El Mencho was hiding in Jalisco at his main base. He reportedly moved often between Jalisco towns and into Michoacán, Colima, and Nayarit.

• On 18 December 2017, a 17-year-old YouTuber, Juan Luis Lagunas Rosales (“El Pirata de Culiacán”), was shot dead in a Jalisco bar by four armed men after he posted videos insulting El Mencho.

• In February 2018, the PGR announced a new arrest warrant for kidnapping and murdering two AIC agents after the DEA and Mexican authorities announced a new anti-crime plan. It targeted cartel financial deals and set up a team for international cases.

• In May 2018, his wife, Rosalinda González Valencia, was arrested for money laundering. In September 2018, she was released on bail of 1.5 million pesos (US$78,000).

• On 15 August 2018, Mexico’s PGR raised the reward money to 30 million pesos for El Mencho’s information.

• In 2019, DEA leader Kyle Mori claimed that El Mencho’s net worth was at least over $1 billion.

• After that, when police authorities tried to arrest El Mencho, CJNG used coordinated tactics to escape El Mencho. They blocked highways and roads in the Guadalajara area and burned at least 37 vehicles as barricades.

• The fires slowed security forces, and El Mencho escaped.

• In April 2019, his godson, Adrián Alonso Guerrero Covarrubias, was arrested on drug trafficking and kidnapping charges.

• On 21 February 2020, the U.S. deported his son, Rubén.

• After that, his daughter, Jessica Johana (“La Negra”), was arrested in Washington, D.C., when she visited there to see her brother Rubén after his arrest in the U.S. for drug trafficking.

• In November 2021, his wife, Rosalinda (“La Jefa”), was arrested in Zapopan, Jalisco. The police authorities claimed that she worked as CJNG’s financial chief.

• In April 2022, she was released from prison.

  

  El Mencho’s wife, Rosalinda after being arrested in Zapopan, Jalisco

• In December 2022, his brother, Antonio Oseguera Cervantes (“El Tony Montana”), was arrested in a Guadalajara army raid. After his arrest, it was reported that he worked for CJNG logistics, such as weapons supply, money laundering, and attacks on rival cartels.

• In September 2024, a Washington, D.C., federal jury convicted his son, Rubén, on murder, drug trafficking, and firearm charges.

• El Mencho’s son-in-law and Laisha’s romantic partner, Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez Ochoa, worked as a high-ranking official in CJNG.

• He faked his death in 2021 after he was accused of kidnapping two Mexican Navy members, drug trafficking, and money laundering.

• El Mencho helped him in planning the fake death by telling his partners that he killed Cristian for lying. Cristian lived in California under a fake name.

• In November 2024, authorities arrested Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez in Riverside, California.

  

  El Mencho’s son-in-law and Laisha’s romantic partner, Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez Ochoa (right)

• In December 2024, El Mencho’s U.S. reward rose from $10 million to $15 million.

• On 27 February 2025, his brother, Antonio Oseguera Cervantes (“El Tony Montana”), was deported from Mexico to the U.S.

• On 20 June 2025, El Mencho pled guilty to international money laundering conspiracy.

• He admitted that he played an important role in various money laundering activities in CJNG from 2023 to 2024, till the time of his arrest. He used real estate, shell companies, and global transfers for operating these activities.

• El Mencho faced health problems for years before his death. Reportedly, he had kidney disease and built a hospital in El Alcíhuatl village for treatment.
  

  El Mencho’s hospital in El Alcíhuatl village

• On 22 February 2026, Mexican special forces, along with U.S. intelligence, tracked El Mencho through his romantic partner. They killed him in a military operation in Tapalpa, Jalisco. The military forces surrounded his hideout, and his bodyguards fled to the woods.

• On the same day, the Mexican Army captured his brother Oseguera in Tapalpa, Jalisco, during a security operation. He died from injuries in crossfire when he was being moved to Mexico City.

• Many shootouts, clashes, and explosions happened during the raids, and CJNG set vehicles on fire across Jalisco. The group blocked roads and burned vehicles in Jalisco, Guanajuato, Nayarit, Michoacán, and Tamaulipas.

• After El Mencho’s death, no successor had appeared for CJNG leadership, as his son Rubén (“El Menchito”) remained imprisoned in the U.S.

• His possible successors were named as his stepson, Juan Carlos Valencia Gonzalez (“El Pelon”) and one brother.

• On 1 March 2026, Mexican special forces handed El Mencho’s body to his family.