Mexico's notorious criminal Nemesio Oseguera Carvantes, known as "El Mencho," has been killed in a shootout with the military. The Mexican military, with the help of US troops, launched an operation to capture him.

After his killing on Sunday, violence erupted in many parts of Mexico. Gunmen set fire to vehicles and set up roadblocks in 20 states.

Who was El Mencho, who ran such a powerful cartel in Mexico? How did he become the head of a gang and become a target for the United States? Many are now interested in this issue. 

He was born on July 17, 1966, in the rural town of Culotitlan, in the municipality of Aguila, Michoacan. As a child, some called him Ruben, some Nemesio, some Lorenzo Mendoza, Nemesio Aseguera Ramos, and others. Over time, he added ‘Nemesio’ to his name in memory of his parents. Despite this, he was known by everyone as ‘El Mencho.’ 

Some also call him ‘The Lord of the Roosters’. Because, he was fond of watching cockfights. 

He had 5 siblings. Growing up in poverty, El Mencho dropped out of school after completing 5th grade. He helped his parents on the farm. He started guarding marijuana fields at the age of 14.

To escape poverty, he illegally entered the US state of California in the 1980s with smugglers.

In the US, he used various aliases to hide his identity. These include 'Ruben Avila', 'José López Prieto', 'Miguel Valadez', 'Carlos Hernández Mendoza', 'Roberto Salgado', etc.

According to police records, he was first arrested in 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area of ​​California. He was only 19 years old at the time. The San Francisco police records state that he was found with stolen goods and some weapons.

His first child was born about two months after his arrest. He also traveled back and forth between Mexico and the United States several times from California, using various aliases. 

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Mexican investigators, it was during this time that he began producing and trafficking methamphetamine in the Redwood City area of ​​California with Sala Abigail Gonzalez Valencia (El Quini). 

In 1989, El Mencho was arrested again in San Francisco on drug charges and was extradited to Mexico a few months later. A few months later, he  illegally re-entered the United States. He began living in San Francisco.

In September 1992, he was arrested in Sacramento, California, on drug charges. According to court documents, he and his brother Abraham had made a deal to sell five ounces of heroin at a bar called the Imperial in San Francisco for about $9,500. Mencho, 26, was sentenced to five years in prison and sent to a reformatory in Texas. After serving about three years, he was released on parole. He then returned to Mexico at the age of 30. After returning home, he joined the local police in the Cabo Corrientes and Tomatlán areas of Jalisco state. After working for a while, he quit his job and fully joined the Milenio Cartel. To further strengthen his ties with the Milenio Cartel, he married Rosalinda González Valencia, the sister of one of the group's top leaders, and later became a powerful figure in organized crime.

Before his murder, Mencho, 59, was the leader of the New Generation Cartel, which operated from the western state of Jalisco. The gang had sophisticated weapons and its own fighters. 

At the height of his influence, he threatened everyone in Mexico. Rolling Stone magazine quoted a US official as saying in 2015 that “he once sent a severed pig’s head on ice to a Mexican lawyer as a threat.”

According to Rolling Stone, El Mencho had invested heavily in a powerful submarine fleet. These submarines transported drugs from South America to the United States. He hired people with experience in the Russian Navy to engineer the submarines, Rolling Stone wrote, citing a former DEA agent. 

El Mencho was placed on the US Most Wanted List after he posed a threat to national security. The US had announced a reward of $15 million for information leading to his arrest.