The son of the supreme leader of Mexico’s Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) will spend the rest of his life in a U.S. prison. The sentence comes as the U.S. government is placing extreme pressure on Mexico’s government to force them to act against drug cartels.
On Friday, 34-year-old Ruben “El Menchito” Oseguera Gonzalez, a U.S.-Mexico dual citizen, went before U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell in the District of Columbia. Judge Howell handed down the life sentence in prison plus 30 years and ordered the restitution of more than $6 billion. The sentence follows a weeks-long trial that took place in September 2024, where several top drug lords testified against him. Witnesses singled him as the number two leader of CJNG just under his father, Ruben Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes.
“This defendant helped build Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion into a brutal terrorist organization that pumps poison onto the streets and commits horrific acts of violence,” said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in a prepared statement released after the sentencing hearing.
According to information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, El Menchito is directly responsible for moving ton quantities of drugs into the country and is one of the first drug traffickers to begin moving fentanyl into the country.
El Menchito is directly responsible for ordering the shooting down of a Mexican military helicopter in 2015 to allow him and his father to escape, Breitbart Texas reported at the time. In 2015, after the attack on the helicopter, Mexican authorities only confirmed three casualties and several other officers injured. However, according to information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, at least nine officers died in that crash.
Federal authorities also claimed that much like his father, El Menchito is considered to be a bloodthirsty individual who personally killed some of his victims and ordered more than 100 murders as part of his criminal endeavors.
Mexican authorities captured El Menchito twice before, once in 2014 and once in 2015. Each time, he had been released under suspicious court rulings. However, after the 2015 arrest, authorities were able to get additional warrants to hold him in custody. Mexico’s government eventually extradited him in February 2020, and he has been in federal custody since.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with the Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
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