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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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The U.S. provided "intelligence support" to Mexican authorities in an operation that killed one of the world's most wanted drug lords, the White House has said.
Mexican security forces killed Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho, in the town of Talpalpa in the western Mexico state of Jalisco on Sunday, the government said.
He had headed up the notorious and powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (JNGC) in the state. Another six members of the cartel were killed in the operation while two more members have been captured.
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The cartel boss' death ignited a massive wave of retaliatory violence that has spread to half a dozen states. In Jalisco, armed supporters took to the streets, setting cars and supermarkets on fire, and breaking into buildings. Armed civilians also shut down roads leading into the state, setting up make-shift roadblocks.
In the popular seaside city of Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco, pictures showed plumes of smoke rising over the beaches from various fires in the city. At least 20 banks were among buildings damaged in clashes there, officials said.
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The U.S. Embassy in Mexico has warned U.S. citizens to "shelter in place" amid the widespread violence as local authorities have issued emergency decrees. US tourists are reporting that they are trapped after international airlines cancelled flights to and from Jalisco.
Why Was the U.S. Involved?
Shortly after U.S. forces captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and brought him to New York to face narco-terrorism charges in January, Trump had said cartels were "running Mexico" and suggested the U.S. would "start now hitting land with regard to the cartels."
Cervantes has long been in the U.S.' sights. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to his arrest.
The White House also designated his cartel, the JNGC, a foreign terrorist organization last year, giving the U.S. more options for how it could target the cartel.
On Sunday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Cervantes had been a "top target" for both the Mexican and U.S. governments and that he was responsible for trafficking fentanyl into the U.S.
President Donald Trump and his administration have vowed to crack down on drug flows into the U.S., killing at least 148 people in strikes on alleged narco smuggling boats in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean waters since September.
The campaign, which the administration says is legal, was quickly criticized as failing to target key fentanyl routes into the U.S. Fentanyl mostly makes its way into the U.S. from China and India via the Mexican border, rather than from South America.
However, emboldened by the Venezuela intervention, Trump increased pressure on Mexico to allow joint security and intelligence operations against drug-trafficking groups in its territory.
President Claudia Sheinbaum rejected US deployments but cooperated on extraditions. In January, Mexico extradited 37 organized crime members to the US and later agreed to accelerate further extraditions.
What Do We Know about U.S. Action in Jalisco?
Leavitt said the U.S. had supported the Mexican operation with intelligence, but did not elaborate further. Meanwhile, Mexico's Defense Ministry said it had received information from American authorities under bilateral agreements between the two nations.
A joint U.S.-Mexico task force that frequently collaborates with the Mexican military was involved in the operation on Sunday, U.S. media reported, citing anonymous U.S. defense officials.
While the raid was planned and conducted entirely by the Mexican military, the U.S. had compiled a dossier about El Mencho and given it to Mexico for the operation, an unnamed former U.S. official told Reuters news agency.
This new U.S.-military-led task force specialized in intelligence collection on drug cartels, the former official said.
The Trump administration established the Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel last month, working under the U.S. Northern Command, which covers American operations in areas beyond the U.S., like Mexico, Canada and Greenland.
The task force focuses on intelligence sharing to battle cartels working across the U.S.-Mexico border, the U.S. government said.
Sunday's operation fits in with the U.S.'s long history of exchanging intelligence with countries in Latin America that are battling drug rings.
Cooperation with Mexico for sharing information has existed for decades, with a range of agreements between institutions, a set of standard procedures and personal relationships between high-up officials across the border.
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Observes note that in the Sheinbum government, Omar García Harfuch, Mexico's public security minister, has overseen more intelligence sharing with the U.S. than previous ministers.
After the U.S. operation in Venezuela, Sheinbaum had played down the possibility of U.S. military action in Mexico without the Mexican government's say-so, reiterating the importance of the country's sovereignty amid the pressure from Washington to act against cartels.
“There is coordination, there is collaboration with the United States government," she said last month.
Following the retaliatory violence, the Mexican president has called for calm saying the government has deployed forces to counter the cartels. She also said daily life was continuing as normal in other parts of the country.
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