C.I.A. Intelligence Helped Mexican Forces Find ‘El Mencho’

The C.I.A. provided intelligence that helped lead Mexican special forces to Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel known as El Mencho, resulting in his killing on Sunday. Mexican officials traced him by following one of his romantic partners.

Investigators first tailed a close associate who took the woman to a rendezvous at the cartel leader’s hideout. Gen. Ricardo Trevilla Trejo said the tip on the associate came from the army’s elite intelligence wing, and that Mexican authorities also used complementary information from U.S.

agencies. One of the people briefed on the operation said the information from the C.I.A. had been "instrumental in removing" the cartel leader. Officials would not describe the intelligence source, noting the agency’s methods include human informants, overhead imagery and intercepted communications.

Mexico

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