Garcia Harfuch Confirms That “El Mencho” Suffers From Kidney Failure

Omar Hamid García Harfuch, head of the Federal Government’s Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), confirmed on February 25, 2025, that Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes – alias “El Mencho,” and/or “El Gallero” and/or “El Señor de los Gallos,” the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) – was suffering from kidney failure.

During President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo’s morning press conference – held from the Treasury Room of the National Palace – the federal official was questioned about the health of 58-year-old “El Mencho.

“We have no knowledge of anything new, other than what is known, that he has some kidney deficiency, but there is no new finding,” responded the head of the Federal SSPC, who was then questioned about whether the CJNG leader was supposedly in serious health. “In that regard, we have nothing of the sort,” he emphasized.

On July 27, 2020, the newspaper El Universal reported that the Michoacan drug lord had ordered the construction of a hospital where only he was treated, in the community of El Alcíhuatl, in the municipality of Villa Purificación, Jalisco state.

According to the newspaper, the Federal Government’s security cabinet identified since 2019, the hospital that “El Mencho” ordered to be built to treat the ailments that afflicted him, including kidney failure, “which has deteriorated his health and hindered his refuge in mountainous areas of the states of Jalisco, Michoacán and Colima”.

El Universal reported that the health center “is located in a wooded area, between several houses and dirt roads. The clinic is a white building, equipped – on Oseguera Cervantes’ orders – for the drug lord, his security circle, and the inhabitants of the town.

According to the same newspaper, the hospital “is located no more than 50 kilometers from Villa Purificación, one of the main strongholds of the CJNG, and where in May 2015 a Mexican Army helicopter was shot down during a federal government operation to capture the Michoacán drug lord.

“On the other hand, El Alcíhuatl is a town with around 200 inhabitants and is dedicated to agriculture and livestock. It is also one of the many hideouts of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, for whom the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is offering a reward of 10 million dollars for information useful to his arrest,” reported El Universal.

“In the last six years, federal intelligence areas detected movements of El Mencho in areas of the Jalisco municipalities of Autlán, Casimiro Castillo, El Grullo and Villa Purificación, where he moved with nearby security equipment,” detailed the newspaper.

“In order to win the sympathy of the locals, he delivered aid, food supplies, and collaborated with various works in the localities. The CJNG and other criminal organizations took advantage of the pandemic to win the affection of the population of Jalisco, Michoacán, Veracruz, Colima and Tamaulipas,” the newspaper added.

On June 15, 2020, then President Andrés Manuel López Obrador denied the rumors that emerged on June 12, regarding the death of the Michoacán capo, then 54 years old.

“It was proven that it was a rumor, it didn’t happen, what was mentioned that he had been arrested or that he had died. Lies, everything said was made up and fake news, is what I can comment”, assured the then national president, during his morning press conference, held from the Treasury Room of the National Palace.

Who Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes? Alias “El Mencho”, and/or El Gallero”, and/or “El Señor de Los Gallos”. 

Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho” and/or “El Gallero” and/or “El Señor de los Gallos,” 58, was born on July 17, 1966, in the town of Naranjo de Chila, in the municipality of Aguililla, Michoacán. His criminal career began towards the end of the 1980s, when he emigrated to northern California, in the United States, to traffic heroin.

“El Mencho” was arrested in 1992 and spent three years in a US prison. Deported, he returned to Mexico, where he established himself as one of the main operators of the Milenio Cartel.

In 2007, together with the Gonzalez Valencia brothers, he formed the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which was mainly dedicated to transporting synthetic drugs to the United States, but first served as the armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel, from which it split off in 2010.

Oseguera Cervantes had several arrest warrants in Mexico and a provisional arrest warrant for extradition purposes, issued in February 2015 by a federal judge in Mexico City.

The last time the drug lord came close to being arrested was on May 1, 2015, when a group of armed men in his service repelled an operation on the Casimiro Castillo-Villa Purificación road, in the state of Jalisco, and shot down a Mexican Air Force (FAM) helicopter.

On October 16, 2018, the US government increased the reward it was offering for information leading to the capture of “El Mencho”, the alleged leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, from 5 to 10 million dollars.

On August 15, 2018, through the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), the Mexican Federal Government offered a reward of up to 30 million pesos for information that is “truthful and useful” to locate and arrest Rubén or Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho”.

On December 4, 2024, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) increased the reward from 10 to 15 million dollars for anyone offering information leading to the capture of “El Mencho”.

Source: Zeta Tijuana