This Was The Operation Of El Mencho To Rescue Two Members Of The Sinaloa Cartel.

Mica for cartelinsider.com

Before becoming mortal enemies, the relationship between Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho”, and the Sinaloa Cartel was very different; the current leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) worked for Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada: he received orders, despite being a plaza boss, and even helped rescue two key figures of the criminal organization for drug trafficking to the United States.

It was the year 2008 -the same year in which the war between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltrán Leyva Organization erupted- when the brothers Margarito and Pedro Flores, their wives, and a group of “Chinese investors” were “kidnapped” by agents of the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI) at a strip club in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.

In reality, the twins were fugitives of American justice for helping the Sinaloa Cartel traffic tons of drugs to Chicago, California, Atlanta, New York, and Canada. That’s why when a customs agent identified them, the first thing he did was extort them. Then, after they failed to pay, he reported them to the AFI and the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency).

Amid bottles of champagne and seminude dancers, a command of the AFI (Federal Investigation Agency) entered the nightclub and took everyone to a safe house. After negotiations and a call from Arturo Beltrán Leyva -according to the account of Vivianna López and Valerie Gaytán in the book “The Cartel Wives”- they released everyone, except for the twins. The intention was to hand them over to a DEA command that was already heading for them at the Puerto Vallarta Airport.

In the pages of the book, it is narrated how under the orders of El Chapo Guzman, El Mayo Zambada, and Arturo Beltran Leyva, an army of over 100 men was ordered to be armed in order to “rescue” the Flores brothers.

The Sinaloa Cartel’s army controlled all the entrances to the city and were ready to confront the AFI men, whom they outnumbered. It would be a massacre led by the plaza chief of Puerto Vallarta, a “semi-regular boss, but everyone feared him because he was a maniac”, known as “El Mencho”.

While Margarito and Pedro Flores were traveling aboard an armored truck with four armed men carrying assault rifles, attempting to turn them over to US authorities, “El Mencho” surrounded the center of Puerto Vallarta with rocket launchers and over 100 men wielding the famous “goat horns” (AK-47 rifles).

They say that the AFI commander didn’t waste time in making a decision: upon seeing “El Mencho” army, he ordered the van to stop; slowly, the now enemy of the Sinaloa Cartel approached the car. “It’s time to go” – Nemesio Oseguera said to the twins – and ordered two of his men to take Pedro and Margarito’s place in order to confuse the DEA agents who were already knocking on the city’s doors.

“The members of “The Cartel Wives” tell that the commander of the AFI put his weapon on the ground and slowly got out of the truck; that “El Mencho” escorted the twins to their house in Guadalajara; that they passed through two checkpoints of the Mexican Army and that, despite being heavily armed, a signal from Nemesio Oseguera was enough for them to be allowed to pass.”

Over the years, the twin brothers Flores were arrested and betrayed El Chapo Guzmán and the Sinaloa Cartel; “El Mencho” formed his own cartel (CJNG); and the commander of the AFI received 2.25 million dollars from the twins to prevent another massacre in Jalisco.

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Mica

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