US carries out nationwide arrest blitz on 'remorseless' CJNG cartel
Federal prosecutors and agents in Washington, D.C., announced a major coordinated arrest blitz Wednesday against members of the the dangerous Mexican cartel, Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación.
Across the nation, federal agents and police served more than 100 search warrants on 250 targets and the confiscation of 600 kilograms of drugs Wednesday as part of "Project Python," an ongoing mission to disrupt and dismantle CJNG, Uttam Dhillon, acting administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, told reporters during a news conference.
So far this week, law enforcement arrested more than 700 CJNG associates, secured 350 indictments and intercepted a "signifcant" amount of drugs and drug money following six months of investigating the cartel's global crimes, he said. During the DEA-led operation, federal officials have intercepted 2,000 kilos of various drugs and seized more than $22 million in money and assets.
"Project Python is the single largest strike by U.S. authorities against CJNG to date, but it's only the beginning," Dhillon said. He call the cartel a "remorseless criminal organization," which profits off America's addiction epidemic.
CJNG's leader, Rúben Oseguera Cervantes, is a top U.S. target with a $10 million reward for help capturing him.
“When President Trump signed an Executive Order prioritizing the dismantlement of transnational criminal organizations, the Department of Justice answered the call and took direct aim at CJNG," said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Criminal Division.
CJNG is the most well-armed cartel in Mexico with more than 100 meth labs in Mexico with major hubs in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta, Benczkowski said.
But they're also in small towns — including Louisville, Lexington and Paducah, according to findings from a nine-month Courier Journal investigation.
The Courier Journal profiled El Mencho and CJNG in a special report last year that highlighted how the fast-growing cartel made its way into small-town America, including cities across Kentucky. The investigation found the cartel operating in at least 35 states and the territory of Puerto Rico.
"Mexican drug cartels pose a serious threat to communities right here in Kentucky, and CJNG is perhaps the most violent and ruthless of them all," Todd Scott, special agent in charge of DEA’s Louisville Field Division, said Wednesday.
“DEA will not stop until CJNG is destroyed and its members face justice."
The cartel leader's son, Rubén Oseguera Gonzalez, who once stood to inherit the throne of a drug dynasty from his billionaire father in Mexico, was extradited last month to the U.S. "Menchito," or "Lil' Mencho," was brought before a federal judge in D.C. on drug and weapons charges and pleaded not guilty. His sister, Jessica Johanna Oseguera Gonzalez, known as "La Negra," also was charged in D.C. on charges of associating with several businesses that launder money for the cartel.
But the most sought after target, their father, has remained on the run for eight years, surrounded by heavily-armed mercenaries. DEA agents believe he is likely in the mountains or jungles of the Western Mexican states of Nayarit, Jalisco, where the cartel is headquartered, or Michoácan, where Mencho was born.
This story will be updated.
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/crime/2020/03/11/cjng-cartel-federal-agents-coordinate-arrest-blitz/5022698002/