American-born son of Mexico’s most wanted drug trafficker is extradited to the United States 

The American-born son of Mexico’s most wanted drug lord was finally extradited to the United States, bringing an end to a lengthy court battle.

Rubén ‘El Menchito’ Oseguera González was handed over to U.S. federal officers Thursday, Mexico’s Attorney General’s office confirmed.

‘El Menchito’ is the son of of Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera Cervantes – the leader of the feared Jalisco New Generation Cartel, considered the most powerful criminal organization in Mexico.

A federal court in the District of Columbia had been seeking his arrest since 2017 when it indicted the 29-year-old San Francisco native on two counts. 

Authorities charged El Menchito with ‘conspiracy to distribute significant quantities of narcotics for illegal importation into the United States’ and engaging ‘in the use of a firearm during and in relation to one or more drug trafficking crimes’ between 2007 and February 2017.

El Menchito is considered the heir to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and was the organization’s second in command prior to being arrested by Mexican security forces in June 2015. 

Rubén ‘El Menchito’ Oseguera González was extradited from Mexico to the United States on Thursday, a spokesperson with Mexico’s Attorney General’s office confirmed to DailyMail.com. He was born in San Francisco and is the son of Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera Cervantes

El Menchito's father is Nemesio 'El Mencho' Oseguera Cervantes (pictured), the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Mexico's most powerful criminal group

El Menchito’s father is Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera Cervantes (pictured), the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Mexico’s most powerful criminal group

Oseguera González was transported out of a federal jail in Hermosillo, Sonora, and flown to Washington.

He was moved to that prison in September after a video released by a Mexican gang revealed a plot to break him out of the Altiplano maximum security prison in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico State, where he had been held since his arrest in June 2015.

Altiplano is the same facility where infamous drug kingpin Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán escaped from in 2015.

In an attempt to stave off his extradition to the United States, El Menchito penned a two-page letter to Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, claiming he was an ‘honest person, hard worker, humble [and] devoted.’

But the letter did little to convince López Obrador to intervene. 

El Menchito also complained of being held in isolation and banned from communicating with the rest of the inmate population.

The cartel boss has battled law enforcement in court for years.

Drug trafficking, gun possession and criminal affiliation charges that were tossed by judges in October and December 2014.

On December 26, 2014, he was released because there was not enough evidence to charge him with drug trafficking and with being a leader of the cartel.

Six months later, he was apprehended by the Mexican Army and federal police after undergoing nose surgery. 

United States authorities say Rubén Oseguera González is the second-in-command of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel behind his father, El Mencho

United States authorities say Rubén Oseguera González is the second-in-command of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel behind his father, El Mencho

A judge released him July 1 after ruling that prosecutors levied the same charges that he had already been cleared of, and his due process rights were violated.  

But again, as he walked out, authorities were waiting and rearrested him.

Federal prosecutors were given a 40-day preventative detention order and he was eventually charged in August 2015 with being the second-in-command behind El Mencho in the Jalisco New Generation Cartel’s power structure and accused of money laundering.

He has remained in custody ever since. 

His defense went as far as presenting a forensic report that claimed the digital images presented by the U.S. did not match photos of El Menchito that were taken when he was transferred to the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 13 in Oaxaca in February 2016.

In a two-page handwritten letter was obtained by Mexican news outlet Proceso and published in December, Rubén Oseguera González told Mexico's president that he is a 'honest person, hard worker, humble [and] devoted'

In a two-page handwritten letter was obtained by Mexican news outlet Proceso and published in December, Rubén Oseguera González told Mexico’s president that he is a ‘honest person, hard worker, humble [and] devoted’

However, a judge from the Eighth District Court in the State of Oaxaca shot down Oseguera González’s request to have his extradition removed because it lacked value. 

An additional investigation carried out by the Office of the Attorney General found that there was connection of facial features with the images of Oseguera González. 

El Menchito, who was born in San Francisco, also steadfastly claimed that was not the son of  El Mencho and presented documents that were dismissed by the Mexican judicial system. 

On August 29, 2019, a judge determined that Oseguera González was not guilty of being involved with organized crime and ordered his immediate release. But authorities kept him behind bars on charges of money laundering and the illegal possession of military weapons. 

The United States government is currently offering a $10 million reward for the arrest of El Menchito’s father. 

His father is the most-wanted man in Mexico and has a $1.6 million bounty on his head. He escaped capture from the military in 2013.

El Mencho is one of the 10 most-wanted men on the FBI's list and the U.S. Department of Justice is also offering a $10 million reward for his arrest

El Mencho is one of the 10 most-wanted men on the FBI’s list and the U.S. Department of Justice is also offering a $10 million reward for his arrest

El Mencho is one of the 10 most-wanted men on the FBI’s list and the U.S. Department of Justice is also offering a $10 million reward for his arrest.

According to the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, El Mencho’s organization operates in 22 of 32 states in Mexico and has shipped cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl-laced heroin to the United States. It also has established that the group has a presence in Europe, Asia and Australia.

His gang is waging several wars against opposing criminal groups, including the Sinaloa Cartel, which was once headed by Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán. It has also been involved in some vicious clashes with the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, which has a major control the illicit sale of gasoline in Mexico.

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk