The cartels battling for Mexico: Ruthless gangs that soften rivals in acid and run Nazi-style ‘extermination camps’ poised to show streets into conflict zones after drug lord killed

On Sunday, Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) boss Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, 59, was killed in Tapalpa in a joint Mexican military and US-backed operation.

At least 20 states were plunged into cartel-fuelled chaos as a result, with violence surging as authorities tightened security across the region.

Oseguera, known as ‘El Mencho’, ruled his drug empire with extreme brutality, using terrifying torture and violence to instill fear into rivals.

Over the last decade, the kingpin turned CJNG into the strongest crime ring in the country, partly by extending his power through ‘franchise’ agreements with smaller gangs around Mexico.

Following his death, authorities have said they are actively working on containing the cartel’s reactions and reinforcing security after the highest-profile blow against cartels since the recapture of former Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín ‘El Chapo‘ Guzmán a decade ago.

However, with the leader now gone, fears of extreme violence and war are rising as several brutal rival cartels compete for control of the territories he left behind. 

Jalisco New Generation Cartel

The CJNG is considered one of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels that plays a key role in trafficking methamphetamine and fentanyl to the US.

El Mencho’s brutal control of the drug-trafficking routes from Latin America to the US, using speedboats and submersibles to ship cocaine and methamphetamine from Colombia and Ecuador via the Pacific, is thought to have made him billions.

The Jalisco cartel has a presence in at least 21 of Mexico’s 32 states and is active in almost all of the US, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration. 

During his merciless rule, kingpin El Mencho displayed a savagery many deemed extreme even by narco standards. 

In 2011, CJNG was implicated in a series of massacres, including the torture and murder of 35 people whose bodies were found dumped in the streets of Veracruz during an evening rush hour.

Just two years later, CJNG operatives allegedly raped, killed, and set fire to a 10-year-old girl whom they mistakenly believed was a rival’s daughter.

In 2015, CJNG assassins executed a man and his elementary-school-age son by detonating sticks of dynamite duct-taped to their bodies, laughing as they filmed the ghastly scene with their phones.

In a particularly gruesome act in 2020, CJNG hitmen tortured a half-naked man before standing on his head and cutting open his chest with a knife.

As the victim screamed in agony, a cartel member can be heard shouting: ‘So you can see that’s how we Jalisco people are… we’re going to exterminate you all.’ Another adds: ‘Pure Mencho’s people, we are the Jaliscos’.

The operative who brutally cut open the victim’s chest then began to pull out his organs before eating them for the camera as others around him laughed.

In one video circulating on social media following El Mencho’s death, an alleged member of the rival MF Cartel can be seen tied to a tree in Sinaloa.

The brutal clip, from November last year, shows an apparent CJNG hitman preparing a flamethrower before spraying the bound man with a stream of fire. The MF member is quickly engulfed in the orange flames.

And last March, forensic teams made a discovery that chilled even hardened investigators – a secret compound near Teuchitlán, Jalisco, where the CJNG allegedly ran a full-scale ‘extermination site’.

Buried beneath the Izaguirre ranch, authorities found three massive Nazi-style crematory ovens.

They contained piles of charred human bones, and a haunting mountain of belongings – over 200 pairs of shoes, purses, belts, and even children’s toys.

Experts believe victims were kidnapped, tortured, and burned alive, or after being executed, to destroy evidence of mass killings.

Just a few weeks prior, authorities in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara, unearthed 169 black bags at a construction site, all filled with dismembered human remains.

The bags were hidden near the CJNG territory, where disappearances are widespread.

In October 2024, the town of Ojuelos, Jalisco, woke up to yet another horror – the decapitated bodies of five men dumped by a dirt road.

Their heads were found in a separate sack, left beside a cardboard sign with a blood-soaked warning from CJNG.

Besides drugs, CJNG is also involved in oil theft, human smuggling and extortion.

Following El Mencho’s death, it is unclear who will take the reins of the massive drug empire, but one potential succesor is Julio Alberto Castillo Rodriguez, Oseguera’s son in law.

US authorities believe he could be next in line, although after Sunday’s operation it is unclear which top figures actually survived, and it may take time for the cartel to regroup.

El Mencho’s former second in command was his son, who has been serving a life sentence in a US prison since 2020.

Meanwhile, the kingpin’s widow, Rosalinda Gonzalez Valencia, has not been seen since her release from prison in February of last year.

Sinaloa Cartel

The Sinaloa cartel has long been one of the biggest and most powerful drug empires, known for its infamous former leader Joaquín Guzmán Loera, also known as ‘El Chapo’.

They are widely considered CJNG’s biggest rival and could be looking to take over their territories.

They primarily traffic fentanyl, cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine to the US. They are also involved in human smuggling.

Since late 2024, two of the cartel’s factions – the Chapitos and the Mayiza- have been engaged in a deadly war.

The Sinaloa Cartel has at least two leadership structures. The first is commanded by loyalists of former leader Ismael Zambada García, ‘El Mayo’, who was arrested in July 2024 in the United States.

The other is made up of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, Ovidio Guzmán López, Iván Archivaldo, and Jesús Alfredo.

The internal war between the factions has led to widespread violence. In June 2025, Mexican authorities found 20 bodies in the state of Sinaloa.

Four of the victims had been decapitated and their bodies were found hanging from a bridge on a main road near Culiacán, the state capital. The heads were found inside a bag.

A message found next to the bodies indicated that the perpetrators belonged to the Mayiza, the faction led by El Mayo’s son.

In May, the body of another man was found hanging from a nearby bridge alongside a narco-message, and a month later, a human head was left near a tourist site in Culiacan.

A fortnight later, several police officers were seriously injured in a nearby ambush.

And last month in another gruesome case of cartel violence, a man was found dead, tortured, and with the skin removed from his face in front of the Cuatro Rios shopping plaza in Culiacan.

Last year homicides rose 400% due to the deadly clashes, with citizens of Sinaloa imposing a self-imposed curfew to avoid the violence between rival gangs.

Cártel del Noreste – Los Zetas

Cártel del Noreste, formerly known as Los Zetas, operates in northeastern Mexico.

They are involved in drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and human smuggling.

Their former leader, Miguel Angel Treviño Morales was a sadist, who was known for savage brutality towards his rivals.

He allegedly favored a method of killing called the ‘stew’, in which enemies would be placed in 55-gallon drums, doused with gasoline or diesel fuel, and burned alive.

Morales reportedly dismembered dozens of victims while they were still alive, and one journalist alleged that the kingpin would eat his victim’s hearts because he believed it would make him invincible.

Members of his cartel claimed that Morales enjoyed driving around the city in a car, pointing at people randomly and saying, ‘kill this one and kill that one.’

He would also psychologically torture his victims by asking them how they wanted to be killed.

His former hitman once claimed the leader could not sleep at night unless he killed someone.

Morales was arrested in 2013, and since then, the gang has been steadily losing leaders.

Juan Gerardo Trevino-Chavez, another leader, was arrested in the United States in 2022 and his second in command, Ricardo Gonzalez Sauceda, was arrested in Mexico last February, then extradited to the United States last month.

Currently, US authorities say Cártel del Noreste’s top member is Miguel Angel de Anda Ledezma, who is in charge of procuring guns and ammunition for the gang.

Cartel Tijuana Nueva Generacion

The Tijuana Cartel , formerly known as the Arellano-Felix Cartel, was previously one of Mexico’s biggest and most violent drug rings.

They are involved in cocaine, heroin, marihuana and methamphetamine trafficking within the US – directly participating in street-level drug dealing.

In 2006, they were reduced to only a few cells and in 2016 began to align themselves with CJNG and became ‘Cartel Tijuana Nueva Generación.’

However the alliance has since been strained, as the cartel has been in battles with CJNG and Sinaloa for control of the city of Tijuana and the region of Baja California.

One of their most notorious affiliates, Santiago Meza, known as ‘The Stew Maker’, was responsible for dissolving at least 300 bodies in acid.

He was in charge of getting rid of bodies, and said he was paid $600 a week by the cartel to carry out the disposals.

After his arrest in 2009, 14,000- 15,000 remains were found buried in his ranch.

In 2012 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison, however in 2024 he was sentenced to an additional 30 years for his ties to organised crime and kidnapping.

La Nueva Familia Michoacána Cartel

La Nueva Familia Michoacána cartel is based in the Mexican states of Michoacana and Guerrero.

They participate in the distribution of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine toe the US, according to American authorities.

Although they have lost significant power over the years after the death of their former leader Nazario Moreno González, alias ‘El Chayo,’ in 2014, at the height of its power they dominated the Mexican drug world.

The cartel had international contacts for distribution of methamphetamine in the Netherlands, India, China, and Bulgaria.

They also conspired with criminal groups based in major cities like Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.

Many of its founding members were trained by Los Zetas, and their influence is still visible, especially in the violent tactics they use.

In one infamous incident in 2006, members of La Familia threw five human heads onto a dance floor along with a message reading: ‘The Family doesn’t kill for money. It doesn’t kill women. It doesn’t kill innocent people, only those who deserve to die. Know that this is divine justice.’

Aside from being known for their involvement in drugs, La Familia were also regarded as religious cult-like group who preached their organisation’s divine right to eliminate enemies.

Cartel de Golfo

The Cartel de Golfo is widely regarded as Mexico’s oldest drug ring, although when it began it mostly smuggled alcohol into the US during the prohibition.

Now, based in northeast Mexico, they are heavily involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping, human smuggling and extortion.

Their last known leader was Jose Alfredo Cardenas-Martinez, also known as ‘The Accountant’, who was captured in early 2018. 

Internal fighting has greatly weakened the cartel in the last few years, with the group no longer being seen as one single organisation but rather individual groups who lack influence. 

One of these groups is called Grupo Sombra, who operates in municipalities such as Tuxpan, Poza Rica, Papantla, and Álamo Temapache.

Despite being a smaller group, they still maintain terror in the region, carrying out public executions and dismemberments. 

In August 2025, at least three dismembered bodies were found on a highway near Papantla, alongside a banner signed by the group. 

Grupo Sombra’s main rival was always CJNG, however the incursion of the Sinaloa Cartel has posed a growing threat.

Unlike Sinaloa which uses advanced technology to monitor rival movements, Cartel de Golfo is more traditional, using standard methods of intimidation and territorial control. 

This has worked against them, leading them to lose grip of their control in areas like Tuxpan.