The son of a Mexican drug cartel has been sentenced to life imprisonment for helping his father conduct and lead one of the biggest and deadliest drug trafficking rings in the country.
“El Menchito” Ruben Oseguera, the son of Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, the most-wanted leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, was found guilty of distributing cocaine and methamphetamine for importation into the United States.
“El Menchito led the Jalisco Cartel’s efforts to use murder, kidnapping, and torture to build the Cartel,” former US Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
Prosecutors claimed the younger Oseguera shot and killed two people, instructed subordinates to fire down a Mexican military helicopter, and ordered the deaths of at least 100 people in 2015.
The 35-year-old was the second-in-command of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel before he was deported to the United States in February 2020. “El Menchito” was recruited to join his family’s drug trafficking enterprise when he was just 14 years old, according to one of his defence lawyers.
US District Judge Beryl Howell sentenced “El Menchito” Ruben Oseguera to a minimum of 40 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison in Washington, DC.
Mr Howell also mandated the surrender of more than $6 billion as part of the penalty.
The Jalisco cartel gained notoriety for manufacturing millions of doses of lethal fentanyl and smuggling it into the US under false pretences of being oxycodone, Percocet, or Xanax.
The US officials referred to the cartel as “one of the world’s most violent and prolific drug trafficking organisations.”
The elder Oseguera is charged with trafficking methamphetamine and fentanyl. Mexico and the US authorities have issued a $15 million reward for his capture.
Earlier, Mexican drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the son of his former partner, were taken into custody in July 2024 in El Paso, Texas, the US Justice Department reported.
Zambada and Guzman were charged with several offences in the United States “for heading the Cartel’s criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks.”
