US jury finds ‘El Menchito’, son of CJNG leader, guilty on all counts

A jury of the Federal Court of the District of Columbia, in Washington, DC, who deliberated over two days, found Rubén Oseguera González, “El Menchito,” son of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho,” leader of the so-called Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel, guilty on Friday.

The charges against him are conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as use or possession of a firearm, in relation to narcotics crimes.

The son of the Michoacan drug lord, 34 years old and originally from San Francisco, California, would be sentenced on January 10, 2025 by Judge Beryl Alaine Howell, of the Federal Court of the District of Columbia, in Washington, DC

Various American media and international agencies reported that “El Menchito” did not react to the jury’s verdict, and that one of his lawyers patted him on the shoulder before leaving the courtroom.

With the testimony of Óscar Nava Valencia, alias “El Lobo,” former leader of the Milenio Cartel or Los Valencia Cartel, the trial against “El Menchito” began on September 9 before Judge Beryl Alaine Howell of the Federal Court of the District of Columbia, in Washington, DC, flanked by his attorneys Jan Edward Ronis and Anthony Colombo Jr.

The son of the Michoacan drug lord was accused, since February 1, 2017, of two charges against him: conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine, and use or possession of a firearm, in relation to drug crimes.

During the first day of trial, the former leader of the Milenio Cartel said he had known Oseguera González since 2005 in Guadalajara, when at the age of 15 he was introduced by his father, “El Mencho,” to the business of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel.

Since then, the leader of the CJNG introduced “El Menchito” into the drug trafficking business – marijuana, methamphetamine and cocaine – and trained him as his successor, with hundreds of men under his command, since before he turned 20, according to Nava Valencia.

“It was so that he could get to know things, the business, both the father and the company. […] “I saw him frequently, more or less once a month,” said “El Lobo,” quoted by the newspaper Milenio and the daily El Universal. “They reported to El Menchito and his father,” added the drug trafficker.

“In the meetings we had with his father, with his uncles, that’s where they introduced him to me,” emphasized the former leader of the Milenio Cartel, who also stated that Oseguera González was also in charge of security for drug shipments for the CJNG.

By 2008, “El Mencho” decided to enter the methamphetamine business, and with him, his son did too. According to “El Lobo,” the Milenio Cartel provided the precursors and ephedrine to the CJNG leaders to produce the synthetic drug that they used to send by plane to Tijuana, Baja California, and then transport it by land to the United States and from there begin distribution.

Nava Valencia also described in his testimony meetings with the family of “El Menchito” where they discussed methamphetamine trafficking, as well as his enmity with the Familia Michoacana and Los Zetas.

“El Menchito” served as second in command of the CJNG until his arrest by Mexican authorities. He was first arrested on January 30, 2014 in Zapopan, Jalisco, in possession of 25 million pesos and firearms.

But on December 1, 2015, a Mexican federal court acquitted Oseguera González of organized crime, in the form of committing crimes against public health. However, elements of the Army and Navy arrested him again on June 23 of that same year. He has remained in prison ever since.

The then Attorney General’s Office accused “El Menchito” of laundering money for the CJNG, through the purchase and sale of properties. However, Oseguera González said that these properties were donated by his mother, Rosalinda González Valencia, alias “La Jefa”, held in the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 16, “CPS Femenil Morelos”, located in Coatlán del Río, Morelos, for the alleged crime of operations with resources of illicit origin.

On February 20, 2020, “El Menchito” was released from the Federal Social Readaptation Center number 11 located in Hermosillo, Sonora, and was transferred by air to be placed at the disposition of the Federal Court of the District of Columbia, in Washington, DC, which has required him since 2016.

Oseguera González will be tried in the aforementioned US Federal Court on charges of possession and use of a firearm, as well as conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine, knowing that the drugs would reach the US.

Oseguera González, on the other hand, faced five trials for crimes committed in México, including organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering, possession of weapons exclusive to the Army and bribery, but was acquitted of all of them.

On September 9, 2019, the Second Collegiate Court on Criminal and Labor Matters of Oaxaca refused to grant an injunction to “El Menchito,” with which Oseguera González sought to avoid being handed over and tried by the aforementioned U.S. Federal Court.

In November 2019, Oseguera González’s lawyers accused Alejandro Sergio González Bernabé, a member of the Federal Judiciary, of instructing the judges of the Second Collegiate Court on Criminal and Labor Matters of Oaxaca to deny protection to “El Menchito.”

On that occasion, lawyer Víctor Beltrán García said that since October 28, 2019, he had submitted a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to reconsider the extradition of “El Menchito,” because the procedure had irregularities, such as the presentation of apocryphal signatures of the American diplomat William Duncan, as well as false statements from protected witnesses.

The plaintiff claimed that the legal deadline for “El Menchito” to be transferred to U.S. territory expired on December 11, 2019, otherwise he had to stay in México. But 69 days after that deadline, the federal government decided to extradite Oseguera González.

The US Government submitted the request for Oseguera González’s extradition to the Mexican authorities on June 21, 2017, which was granted by the country’s Foreign Ministry on October 4, 2018, and which “El Menchito” was notified of when he was in prison at Cefereso No. 13, located in Miahuatlán de Porfirio Díaz, in Oaxaca.

Oseguera González filed an appeal against his extradition, but Adriana Alejandra Ramos León, Eighth District Judge in the State of Oaxaca, denied him the protection of justice, a decision that was confirmed by the Second Collegiate Court on Criminal and Labor Matters based in the same entity.

According to the newspaper Milenio, neither the Attorney General’s Office nor the Judicial Branch of the Federation had publicized the trial against the extradition of “El Menchito,” which was filed under file number 363/2019 in the aforementioned federal court.

A few days before the end of Barack Obama’s administration, the Federal Court of the District of Columbia in Washington ordered the arrest of “El Menchito.” He was arrested on December 14, 2019, for possession and use of a firearm.

As well as for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine, knowing that he would be extradited to the US, whose authorities seek to seize all properties, investments, cash and assets in general that are the product of the criminal activities of Oseguera González, as recorded in criminal case 1: 16-cr-00229-BAH, filed in the Federal Court of the District of Columbia, in Washington, DC.

Known by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) under the aliases of “Rubencito”, “El Rojo”, “El Ruso”, “Junior” and “El Niño”, the American justice system attributes these charges to “El Menchito”, due to the fact that there is evidence that he was importing and distributing drugs in that country since 2011.

However, in the request for guarantees that was denied by the Second Collegiate Court on Criminal and Labor Matters of Jalisco, Oseguera González alleged that he is not the same person that the US authorities seek to judge, in addition to the fact that the sentences that would be imposed on him in the US, such as life imprisonment, are “unusual,” and Mexican legislation does not allow punishments of this type.

“[‘El Menchito’] He claims that he is not the person that the United States Government is seeking in extradition. […] That is not the son of [‘El Mencho’] but from a different person […] so the statement of [un testigo]was used as support to grant his extradition, since it shows that the witness identified a person other than him […]”, states an extract from the protection filed by Oseguera González.

Oseguera González submitted as evidence a forensic medical expert report on anthropometry and personal identification, and on physiognomic identification by a private expert, which was admitted on July 24, 2017, and resolved on July 6, 2018.

The private expert determined that the digital images in the formal extradition request from the United States Embassy in México were technically deficient to conduct a comparative study of the facial features between them and those taken of Rubén Oseguera when he was in prison at Cefereso No. 13 in Oaxaca.

For its part, the then Attorney General’s Office provided as evidence the expert opinion on physiognomic identification, in which in its opinion of May 15, 2018, it concluded that when analyzing the physiognomic features, inserted in the photographs to be compared, it was determined that there is dimensional, chromatic and morphological correspondence of the facial characteristics, between the people who appear in the photograph, and with the inmate at that time in the federal prison located in the municipality of Miahuatlán de Porfirio Díaz, Oaxaca.

On September 6, 2019, “El Menchito” was transferred to the maximum security wing of Cefereso number 11, in Hermosillo, Sonora, as announced by the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, which explained that, previously, Oseguera González was held in the Federal Social Readaptation Center, number 15, in Villa Comaltitlán, in Chiapas.

“The transfer was carried out in full compliance with the inmate’s human rights and based on Article 52, Sections I and III of the National Law on the Enforcement of Criminal Sentences, since it has special security measures,” the SSPC detailed in an information card.

The institution also recalled that Oseguera González has been indicted for various crimes and has a pending extradition request from the US Government. “The Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection reiterates its commitment to respect the human rights of this and all inmates held in the country’s Ceferesos,” added the SSPC.