Mexican Secretary of National Defense, Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, speaks during the daily morning briefing at Palacio Nacional on Feb. 23, 2026, in Mexico City, Mexico. (Cristopher Rogel Blanquet / Getty Images)
By Bryan Chai February 23, 2026 at 6:07pm
Mexican drug cartels were rocked when Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” was captured and killed after a daring Sunday raid.
And the gangs can apparently thank a paramour of Cervantes’ for the trouble.
According to Fox News, authorities were able to successfully track Cervantes after it had kept tabs on one of his “romantic partners.”
“On February 20, through central military intelligence work, a man of trust of one of El Mencho’s romantic partners was located, who took her to a facility in the town of Tapalpa, Jalisco,” Mexican Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla Trejo told reporters on Monday.
Local authorities had identified “a trusted courier or guard” associated with one of Cervantes’ partners.
That “trusted” source was followed, and eventually found to bring one of Cervantes’ partners to a secretive location for a rendezvous with the drug lord.
The next day, the partner apparently left the premises — but Cervantes did not.
This window was all local authorities needed to greenlight the raid that eventually captured and killed Cervantes.
Cervantes’ well-armed inner circle fought ferociously, but were ultimately beaten by Special Forces.
Eight gang members were killed, while two members of the military were wounded.
Cervantes and some of his crew would eventually escape the property before being found in the nearby woods. A shootout commenced, with Cervantes and two of his associates wounded.
It was determined that Cervantes and his crew needed immediate medical attention, though all three died while being helicoptered to a nearby medical facility.
Cervantes’ capture and death is a huge loss for the Mexican drug trade — which is something President Donald Trump has been pushing for some time now.
In fact, while it doesn’t appear the U.S. was directly involved in this daring raid to take down Cervantes, according to the New York Post, Trump had already been working closely with Mexican authorities behind the scenes.
(Though the U.S. government did place a $15 million bounty on Cervantes’ head.)
The New York Post reported that Trump “quietly” got Mexico to hand over nearly 100 cartel drug traffickers before the Cervantes raid.
Of note, Trump did apparently “pressure” the Mexican government to cooperate in this endeavor.
“As President Trump has made clear, cartels are terrorist groups, and this Department of Justice is devoted to destroying cartels and transnational gangs,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said last February during the first round of trafficker transfers.
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