Mexico's drug cartels: El Chapo is followed by El Mencho

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The man in the photos sometimes wears top lipstick, sometimes not. Sometimes it is a bit fuller, sometimes slimmer. In any case, he is one of the most powerful Mexican crime bosses - maybe even the most powerful of all.

Nemesio Oseguera, called "El Mencho", is considered so dangerous that the US government recently doubled its bounty to $ 10 million. It is quite possible that Oseguera was pleased when US Attorney General Jeff Sessions stepped in front of the press.

On the one hand, that the authorities seem to have no recent photos of him - the pictures are consistently a few years old. On the other hand, Oseguera may have seen the doubling of the bounty as confirmation - especially as the US classifies its cartel "Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación" (CJNG) as one of the "five most dangerous transnational criminal organizations in the world".

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According to US drug investigators, the CJNG will be responsible for the smuggling of at least five tonnes of cocaine and five tonnes of metamphetamine per month to the United States. Oseguera's biggest goal is to replace the Sinaloa Cartel as Mexico's most powerful criminal organization and, above all, New York-based leader Joaquín Guzmán, "El Chapo", as boss of the bosses.

Oseguera, 52, has made it far. Today, he heads Mexico's most dangerous, bloodthirsty, and fastest growing criminal organization. He started as a kind of junior partner of the Sinaloa cartel in the important state of Jalisco with its metropolis Guadalajara. In 2010, "El Mencho" ended the alliance with me "El Chapo" and set up his own syndicate. As almost always in such cases, partners became bitter enemies.

Since then, experts have observed a steep rise in the "Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación". According to InsightCrime, a US news portal specializing in organized crime in Latin America, the group operates in at least 22 of the 32 states of Mexico and, in the eyes of independent crime expert Alejandro Hope, has pulled the Sinaloa cartel out of the ever-growing synthetic drug market ,

From a peasant family to the top of a cartel

This is due to shifts in the cartel landscape, but also to the extreme brutality of Oseguera and his organization, even for Mexican conditions. In 2011, the CJNG dropped 35 bodies of torture victims on the streets of Veracruz. In 2013, CJNG gangsters raped and killed a ten-year-old who they mistakenly considered a rival's daughter. In 2015, CJNG killers killed a man and his elementary-age son by attaching dynamite sticks to their bodies and detonating them.

Oseguera is native to the town of Uruapan in the western state of Michoacán. There he grew up in a family of avocado farmers. As a young man, he went as a migrants without papers in the United States. There, he apparently dealt with heroin, was arrested and expelled to his homeland. In the small town of Tomatlán in Jalisco, he joined the local police. When he met his future wife Rosalinda, who worked as an accountant for the criminal organization "Milenio-Kartell", he changed sides again. By then, say investigators, the rise began to one of Mexico's most dangerous drug lords.

He then picked up speed with his last arrest of El Chapo in January 2016 and his extradition to the US a year later.

Public enemy number one

In the Sinaloa cartel there were succession battles between Guzmán's sons Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo, called "Los Chapitos", and Dámaso López Núñez, formerly Guzmán's close confidant. The CJNG took advantage of the weakness of the competition to wrest smuggling routes and territories from the Sinaloa Syndicate.

In Mexico, "El Mencho" since 2015 as "public enemy number one". At that time, his cartel on May 1, managed to scare the six-million-city Guadalajara with burning roadblocks and attacks on businesses and security forces. The criminals even managed to shoot down a military helicopter, which made it clear that the organization also had weapons of war.

In August 2016, "El Mencho" probably also kidnapped the two "Chapitos". Only five days later they were released for the payment of a ransom and possibly more territorial assignments. In the world of cartels, this was a humiliation of the opponent and at the same time a sign of their own strength.

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He who is so powerful has enemies. Hardly a person in Mexico should be better guarded than "El Mencho". His personal protection should even put the Mexican president in the shade. Oseguera employs former Army and Navy elite soldiers as bodyguards. His tightest security ring consists of 20 men who are equipped with rapid-fire guns and grenade launchers. Oseguera knows that the investigators are always at his heels. His wife Rosalinda, former chief financial officer of the cartel, was caught in May. His son Rubén, called "Menchito", is in custody awaiting extradition to the United States.

REUTERS / Secretaria de Gobernacion / Handout via Reuters

Rubén Oseguera Gonzalez, called "El Menchito"

Nemesio Oseguera is "pathologically suspicious," says crime expert Hope. The drug lord is believed to be hiding in the area around El Grullo in southwest Jalisco. In the barely accessible hinterland he should have his shelters, where he knows every nook and cranny. And the population protects him, says expert Hope.

In addition, the state governor, Aristóteles Sandoval, seems to be holding his protective hand over the criminal - a high-level relationship in politics and organized crime in Mexico.

Sandoval's term ends in early December. Whether his successor respects the possible agreements with the CJNG, is open. Especially as the future president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who takes office on 1 December, wants to combat the links of the cartels in the legal economy and in politics especially.

In summary: under Mexico's drug cartels, a change of guards is indicated. For a long time, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán was considered the most powerful drug lord. Following his arrest and delivery to the US, the gang Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) is increasingly filling the gap. Once a junior partner of Guzman's Sinaloa cartel, she is now, according to US investigators, one of the "five most dangerous transnational criminal organizations in the world." CJNG chief Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera is considered to be extremely suspicious and brutal. The US has exposed him to a bounty of ten million dollars.