Who was ‘El Mencho’? Chaos in Mexico after drug cartel leader’s death

In 2011, in Veracruz, CJNG tortured and killed 35 members of a rival cartel. The bodies were dumped “on a main road amid a battle for territorial control,” according to the National Counterterrorism Center. In 2015, in Jalisco, 15 Mexican police officers were killed in an ambush by the cartel. It is described as “one of the deadliest attacks on security forces in modern Mexican history.” The same year, CJNG launched a rocket-propelled grenade at a Mexican military helicopter, shooting it down and killing nine soldiers.