A man who allegedly delivered Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera’s lover to him shortly before the cartel boss was killed in a military operation on Feb. 22 was detained on Sunday, authorities said.
The Ministry of National Defense (Defensa) announced that Mexican Army special forces and National Guard personnel arrested José “N” while they were carrying out “land patrols” in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, a municipality in Jalisco that is part of the Guadalajara metropolitan area.
Defensa said in a statement that “José ‘N’ (alias) Pepe is considered one of the main logistics operators” of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which Oseguera founded and led for many years until his death last month.
The ministry also said that the suspect “was the person in charge of transferring the romantic partner of the deceased Rubén Oseguera Cervantes (alias) Mencho to Tapalpa, Jalisco,” where the Feb. 22 military operation occurred.
Defensa said that military personnel seized drugs, weapons and a vehicle from José “N,” who was placed in the custody of the organized crime division of the Federal Attorney General’s Office.
The day after the military operation targeting Oseguera, Defense Minister Ricardo Trevilla Trejo said that authorities determined the location of the CJNG leader after a man delivered one of his “romantic partners” to him.
Trevilla said that on Feb. 20, military intelligence work enabled the location of a “trusted man of one of the romantic partners of ‘El Mencho.’”
That man, he said, transported Oseguera’s lover to a property in Tapalpa, a municipality around 130 kilometers southwest of Guadalajara.
Trevilla said that the woman met with “El Mencho” at the property.
The next day — the day before Oseguera was killed — the woman left the property “and information was obtained that ‘El Mencho’ remained at that place,” the defense minister said.
Oseguera’s lover has been identified in media reports as Guadalupe Moreno Carrillo. The Mexican military “had photographs of her and maintained close surveillance of properties where she lived in Zapopan and Puerto Vallarta,” according to the news outlet La Silla Rota.
Moreno and Oseguera reportedly began their relationship after the CJNG leader separated from his wife, Rosalinda González Valencia, in 2022.
Asked last Thursday whether El Mencho’s lover had been detained, President Claudia Sheinbaum said she didn’t know, telling reporters that her government would report on the matter at a later date.
The newspaper El Financiero reported on Sunday that Moreno appears in military intelligence reports that were leaked in 2022 by a group of hackers called Guacamaya.
In military reports, she is referred to as a “recurrent companion of ‘El Mencho,’ with regional coordination roles within” the CJNG, El Financiero wrote.
With reports from El Financiero and La Jornada
