Members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) pose for a photo at an undisclosed location in Michoacan state Mexico. One of the men bears the insignia of the Delta hit squad that reports to cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera and that U.S. federal investigators say received a gun that came from the Racine gun store

By Kayla Dones - March 2, 2026

On February 22, 2026, the Mexican military mounted an operation, assisted by the CIA, that killed Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, the 59-year-old head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) who had a $15 million bounty on his head.

A few hours later, Donald Trump tweeted “We’re Winning too much, it’s just not fair!”

The New York Times further quoted from a Mexican security analyst who claimed that the killing of “El Mencho” was “undoubtedly the most important blow that has been dealt to drug trafficking in Mexico since drug trafficking existed in Mexico.”[1]

This latter assessment is put in doubt by the fact that, going back to the days of Pablo Escobar, the strategy of killing drug kingpins has done nothing to curtail the drug demand patterns and underlying structural inequalities fueling the growth of the worldwide drug trade.[2]

Pablo Escobar’s body being lowered from the rooftop where he was killed by Colombian state security forces, assisted by the CIA on December 2, 1993. But Escobar’s killing did little to curtail the drug trade out of Colombia, which expanded markedly after the Clinton and Bush administrations instituted the ill-conceived Plan Colombia.

Additionally, we know that many of the weapons used by drug cartels that foment violence in Mexico come from the U.S. military.

Two weeks before the killing of “El Mencho,” a consortium of journalists released a report detailing that about half the high-powered .50-caliber cartridges Mexican authorities have seized from cartels since 2012 were traced to an ammunition factory outside Kansas City, Missouri, owned by the U.S. government, the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, the largest manufacturer of rifle rounds used by the American military.

The ammunition made its way to the cartels via private smuggling networks that flourished as a result of systemic law enforcement corruption on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.[3]

Investigators documented at least 87 attacks using this ammunition since 2003—121 dead, including police massacres, helicopter shoot-downs, and government assassinations.

Mexican drug cartel operatives, including from the CJNG, have also infiltrated . . .

[SNIP]