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Mexican drug lord El Mencho sowed death and destruction south of the border — but the evil drug kingpin also left his mark on Los Angeles.
Federal Drug Enforcement Agency officials pointed the finger at the leader of Mexico’s New Generation Cartel, also known as CJNG — whose real name is Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes — as the prime culprit behind the hideous explosion of homelessness and meth and fentanyl addiction in Skid Row.
Bill Bodner, former Special Agent in Charge of DEA Los Angeles, told Fox 11 that El Mencho and CJNG were behind the hoards of drugged-out zombies that gripped the downtown LA neighborhood in a televised interview when he was still running the DEA office, back in 2020
“CJNG, probably the most prolific cartel in Mexico right now as far as perpetrating violence and trafficking and drugs, is a huge influence on those of us in California,” said Bodner.
“They’re pushing the drugs that are coming into the community here,” Bodner continued. “They’re responsible for part of the homelessness.”
Oseguera Cervantes was located and killed on Sunday after intelligence agencies were able to track down one of his lovers to his secluded resort compound in the mountainside getaway of Tapalpa, Jalisco, Mexico’s Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla said Monday.
The death of Mexico’s most powerful and notorious drug lord set the entire nation on fire and triggered cartels to wage a violent revolt across at least 20 of Mexico’s 31 states, killing at least 25 Mexican National Guard members as of Monday.
Oseguera Cervantes rose to power following the spectacular 2014 capture and then dramatic 2016 re-arrest of former top Mexico drug boss Joaquín Guzmán, known as “El Chapo”, the ex-leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.
But Bodner said Oseguera Cervantes was actually much worse than Guzmán — because Oseguera Cervantes was more businesslike than his flamboyant predecessor.
“To some extent, I feel El Chapo was a little bit overrated,” Bodner explained. “Mencho is probably worse because he’s more professional professional and focused on business. and he’s more focused on disciplined business.”
Bodner said the thousands of addicts wandering the streets of LA were funding the bloody reign of Oseguera Cervantes.
“There’s no reason to be afraid of shooting up in public. There’s no motivation to go to treatment,” said Bodner of the dire situation in LA’s Skid Row.
The flow of crime and drugs over the boarder fueled the rise of Oseguera Cervantes.
The ruthless drug boss was once a small-time pusher in San Francisco — where he lived for years even after being deported in the 1980s and 1990s — before becoming a most-wanted narcotics kingpin in Mexico.
Oseguera Cervantes’s killing by Mexican military forces unleased a wave of violence so intense that it has prompted the US State Department to issue stay-in-place orders in tourist hotspot Puerto Vallarta and other parts of the country.
But top LA federal prosecutor Bill Essayli said Monday the federal government had no credible threats of violence in the city in response to the killing of of Oseguera Cervantes.
English (US)