POLITICS: Killing ‘El Mencho’ was just Step One in taking down the Mexican terror cartels

The death of Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes decapitated the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación, one of the most dangerous drug organizations in North America.

There’s no denying the satisfaction of seeing a terrorist like El Mencho meet his end.

But to save American lives, we need to focus less on the people and more on the money.

Absent sustained pressure from Mexico and the United States, CJNG will adapt, decentralize and regenerate its vast illicit empire.

Cartels are built not on a single personality, but on sprawling networks of players, organizations and enablers.

When one leader dies, hundreds can vie to take his place. 

Moreover, a leader isn’t even necessary: Drug cartels have evolved over recent decades from top-heavy organizations to loose affiliations of financial players that seek to recoup profits from doing what no legal business is willing to do.

Cartels aren’t simply criminal organizations — they’re transnational business enterprises.

Their true centers of gravity are not individual leaders but financial networks, logistics systems and corruption pipelines, all supported and emboldened by special assault units and regional military presences with capabilities rivaling those of small countries.

The CJNC is responsible for sending vast quantities of drugs into this country, but its widespread and diverse businesses capture profits from human trafficking, illegal logging, timeshare scams, illicit oil sales and much more.

With the legitimate front companies they control and the politicians they bribe, they interweave their power bases into the fabric of many communities.

Earlier this month the US Treasury sanctioned a network of CJNC-controlled entities that include companies in hotel management, real estate, tourism and sports.

While CJNC is the most powerful cartel in Mexico, other players are eager to step into its shoes or expand their territories.

That includes CJNC’s largest rival, the Sinaloa cartel, and smaller regional players like the La Nueva Familia Michoana, which controls the Lazaro Cardenas port — a hub for both legitimate trade and fentanyl and meth precursor imports.

Under El Mencho, CJNG evolved into a global criminal enterprise with operational reach across more than 40 countries spanning North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

And (unlike earlier cartels) it combined narcotics trafficking with paramilitary capabilities, territorial governance and sophisticated financial and money-laundering networks.

Within Mexico, CJNG was a massive operation, with a sprawling structure and a presence in 27 of the nation’s 32 states.

While El Mencho’s death may lead to fragmentation — and will almost certainly involve warfare and increased bloodshed — more numerous and more decentralized cells will not reduce the drugs coming into America.

And tracking those drugs may be more difficult, involving new players that are harder to detect.

Decapitation is not enough.

President Donald Trump has demonstrated his willingness to use economic power as a national security tool.

Now he must expand that approach to help Mexico dismantle CJNG’s financial and logistical infrastructure — along with the dirty lawyers, accountants and lobbyists who enable it.  

His administration can also help root out the North American-based Chinese money-laundering operations that allow the seamless flow of drug proceeds back to the cartels, along with the opaque Mexican and US shell corporations that further obfuscate illicit dealings under a veneer of legitimacy.

The Treasury must accelerate sanctions targeting CJNG’s successor leadership and financial facilitators, while the State Department must coordinate with allies to freeze cartel assets globally.

The Commerce Department must enforce export controls preventing cartels from acquiring drone technology, encrypted communications and financial tools.

The USMCA trade agreement also provides strategic leverage that Trump can use as both an economic and a security instrument.

Secure supply chains require secure territory, and cartel control of ports like Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas presents a direct threat to North American economic integration.

Washington should add counter-narcotics measures to the USMCA, requiring enhanced port security, financial transparency and anti-corruption enforcement.

Tariff threats that compelled Mexican action against El Mencho can be paired with positive incentives — with preferential trade access contingent on dismantling cartel financial networks.

As Trump has correctly recognized, cartels operate as hybrid threat actors that control territory, undermine governance, corrupt institutions and exploit globalization to expand their reach.

El Mencho’s death represents rare disruption within one of the Western Hemisphere’s most dangerous criminal organizations.

But cartels are adaptive, evolving rapidly in response to leadership losses to keep the profits flowing.

To dismantle them, the United States and Mexico need more than military action: They need to dismantle the many illicit revenue streams that make the drug trade so lucrative in the first place.

Elaine Dezenski is senior director and head of the Center on Economic and Financial Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Jonathan Earles is a researcher and member of FDD’s National Security Network.