A monthslong Drug Enforcement Administration operation targeting one of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels led to hundreds of arrests.
For six months, the DEA cracked down on the Jalisco New Generation cartel in an operation known as “Project Python” and secured more than 600 arrests, 350 indictments, seized 15,000 kilograms of meth, and recovered $20 million across several states, according to the agency.
Wednesday’s early morning raids, which led to about 250 arrests, were part of a plan to get closer to capturing the head of the violent cartel, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera. There is a $10 million reward for his arrest, and he is considered one of the most wanted men in America, according to the Associated Press.
Officials say Oseguera is more of a threat than Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was.
“I think the threat from El Mencho and CJNG is greater right now because in my opinion, at the time Chapo was captured or at the time he was kind of at his at his heyday, so to speak, the Sinaloa Cartel was fractured, it was a little broken up,” DEA special agent Bill Bodner said.
“They have a little bit more discipline. They’re not necessarily into the partying and living the good life, it’s just about the business of drug trafficking and control, and that’s what makes them scarier,” he added.
The CJNG is one of Mexico’s most violent and fastest-growing gangs. Law enforcement officials believe it has distribution hubs in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Houston, and Atlanta, with a general presence in 24 of Mexico’s 32 states.
President Trump signed an executive order in 2017 with the goal of “prioritizing the dismantlement of transnational criminal organizations.”
“We deemed CJNG one of the highest-priority transnational organized crime threats we face,” Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said about the project.
