C.I.A. Intelligence Helped Lead Mexican Authorities to ‘El Mencho’

Mexican officials said they had found the elusive cartel kingpin by tracking a romantic partner. The C.I.A. provided some intelligence critical to the operation.Mexican special forces in Mexico City on Sunday. C.I.A. intelligence helped lead the special forces to the cartel leader.Credit...Alfredo Estrella/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 23, 2026Updated 5:50 p.m. ETThe Central Intelligence Agency provided important intelligence on the location of Mexico’s most wanted cartel boss that led to an operation by Mexican special operation forces and his killing on Sunday, according to a U.S. official and others with knowledge of the operation.The Mexican authorities said on Monday that they had found the cartel boss, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, the longtime leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel known as El Mencho, by tracking one of his romantic partners. They said they had first followed one of her close associates, who took the woman to a rendezvous with Mr. Oseguera at the cartel leader’s hide-out.Gen. Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, Mexico’s secretary of defense, said the intelligence on the associate had come from the elite intelligence wing of the Mexican Army. But he also acknowledged that the Mexican authorities had used “complementary information” from U.S. agencies to track Mr. Oseguera’s network of contacts.One of the people briefed on the operation said the information from the C.I.A. had been “instrumental in removing” the cartel leader.The people briefed on the operation would not describe the source of the intelligence, noting that the agency had many methods of collecting information, including a network of human informants, overhead imagery and intercepted communications.The United States has been stepping up intelligence-sharing and pressuring Mexico to act on that information throughout the Trump administration.During the Biden administration, the C.I.A. began covert drone flights over Mexico to hunt for fentanyl production labs and cartel leaders. John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director in the Trump administration, expanded those flights and pressed his agency’s officers to recruit more informants — essentially spies — who could provide critical information.A Mexican official said the cooperation showed that the government was able to quickly and effectively act on information provided by U.S. intelligence agencies. Mexican officials have been pushing back against U.S. officials who want Mexican and American forces to conduct joint raids against labs or cartel leaders, arguing that Mexican forces have the skills to carry out complex operations.The killing of Mr. Oseguera, some officials said, should give the Mexican government some leverage in holding off U.S. demands for joint raids or unilateral U.S. drone strikes.Northern Command, the U.S. military headquarters with responsibility for Mexico, set up an intelligence sharing group at Fort Huachuca, in Arizona, in January.A person briefed on the operation against Mr. Oseguera said that the task force provided some intelligence to aid the Mexican military in hunting for the cartel leader.The task force is designed to counter drug cartels and has about 300 military and civilian personnel, including representatives from U.S. intelligence agencies and law enforcement personnel. The task force members study the cartels, looking at their leadership, logistics and financial operations in order to develop intelligence that Mexican authorities can act on. In an interview earlier this month, the task force commander, Brig. Gen. Maurizio Calabrese, said his group examined the support networks surrounding the cartels. His personnel may track people who are not members of the cartel but enable the task force to better understand the entire operation.“It’s identifying that entire network, and identifying how much of that entire network helps, generate revenue for those bigger cartels,” General Calabrese said. “Obviously, that’s what we want to disrupt.”Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades.Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times. He has reported on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism for more than three decades.Jack Nicas is The Times’s Mexico City bureau chief, leading coverage of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.SKIP