The Mexican special forces raid on Sunday that killed cartel kingpin Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” unfolded outside the mountainous tourist hotspot of Tapalpa, in Jalisco state. General Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, Mexico’s defense secretary, said they had tracked Oseguera’s lover to a cabin in the woods, where the fugitive drug trafficker had been hiding for several days.
The town’s mayor, Antonio Morales Díaz, told media outlets afterward that he did not know the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) boss had been staying in the area.
But Oseguera’s connections to his apparent hideout date back more than a decade, a Kharon review found—most directly through his daughter, who went to prison in part for managing it.
“At that spot, there are cabins that match the night‑vision images captured by Mexican Army helicopters during the operation,” El País reported Tuesday. The site, it noted, “is located within a development of cabins and country homes near a forest where tourists go camping, barbecuing outdoors, and enjoying nature and the mountains.”
The CJNG connections:
The town’s mayor, Antonio Morales Díaz, told media outlets afterward that he did not know the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) boss had been staying in the area.
But Oseguera’s connections to his apparent hideout date back more than a decade, a Kharon review found—most directly through his daughter, who went to prison in part for managing it.
The cabin compound
Based on video captured during the operation, CNN reported that the likely exact location of the raid was the Tapalpa property of Cabañas La Loma. That’s a vacation-rental business the U.S. has repeatedly flagged for supporting CJNG.“At that spot, there are cabins that match the night‑vision images captured by Mexican Army helicopters during the operation,” El País reported Tuesday. The site, it noted, “is located within a development of cabins and country homes near a forest where tourists go camping, barbecuing outdoors, and enjoying nature and the mountains.”
The CJNG connections:
- The Treasury Department sanctioned the cabin complex in September 2015, when it was called Las Flores Cabanas, along with four other businesses that Treasury said CJNG controlled and that provided “financial support to [its] drug trafficking activities.”
- In 2020, while sanctioning additional CJNG-tied companies that it said gave the cartel “means to launder drug proceeds,” Treasury noted that it had identified two new names for the cabin business: Cabanas La Loma en Renta and Cabanas La Loma Tapalpa.
A U.S. court case and CJNG-tied businesses
Jessica Johanna Oseguera Gonzalez, a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen, ultimately pleaded guilty to willfully violating the Kingpin Act “by engaging in property transactions” with six Mexican companies that Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had sanctioned for materially supporting CJNG, the Justice Department announced in May 2021.
Kharon users can explore these and other connections through the ClearView platform.
“Court documents indicate that Oseguera Gonzalez was an owner of two Mexican companies designated by OFAC, J&P Advertising S.A. de C.V., and JJGON S.P.R. de R.L. de C.V., and that she was an officer, director, or agent of four additional sanctioned businesses,” including Las Flores Cabanas, the Justice Department said. “She remained an owner, officer, director, or agent of those entities following their OFAC designations, and did not seek the required license from OFAC to engage in those financial transactions.”
But she appears to have been involved with the property since even earlier on. Records from 2012, Kharon found, show that a “Jessica Oseguera” was listed as the “Administrative Contact” and “Technical Contact” of Cabanas Las Flores’ website domain.
Neither went into specifics. But the U.S. had already put out sufficient intelligence publicly, years before Sunday’s raid, to connect the dots from El Mencho to the mountain where Mexican forces finally brought him down.
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- Oseguera Gonzalez was sentenced to 30 months in prison, according to court records.
But she appears to have been involved with the property since even earlier on. Records from 2012, Kharon found, show that a “Jessica Oseguera” was listed as the “Administrative Contact” and “Technical Contact” of Cabanas Las Flores’ website domain.
In brief
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on social media Sunday that the U.S. had “provided intelligence support to the Mexican government in order to assist” with the operation. Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said the same.Neither went into specifics. But the U.S. had already put out sufficient intelligence publicly, years before Sunday’s raid, to connect the dots from El Mencho to the mountain where Mexican forces finally brought him down.
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