“They Brought a Rocket Launcher to a Gunfight”: El Mencho’s Final Stand Exposes CJNG’s Shocking Military Arsenal

MEXICO CITY — When Mexican Special Forces closed in on the world’s most wanted drug lord Sunday morning, they weren’t just walking into a firefight—they were walking onto a battlefield. The operation that killed Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) leader Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes has unveiled a staggering cache of military-grade weaponry, including rocket launchers capable of shredding aircraft, exposing just how dramatically Mexico’s criminal landscape has militarized. Officials confirmed that cartel gunmen deployed heavy arms against security forces during the raid in Jalisco, forcing the military to scramble aircraft and rapid-reaction units in what became a full-scale urban assault. The seizure of armored vehicles and anti-aircraft weapons serves as a chilling reminder of CJNG’s 2015 attack, when the cartel used rocket-propelled grenades to blast a Mexican military helicopter out of the sky—a feat once unthinkable for a criminal organization.

The death of El Mencho, long considered one of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s most wanted fugitives, has triggered immediate instability across multiple states, prompting the State Department to issue an urgent shelter-in-place order for Americans in the region. Former U.S. officials describe CJNG not as a cartel, but as a “paramilitary operation” that controls territory through armed convoys, coordinated roadblocks, and enforcement wings structured like light infantry units. Sunday’s raid, involving Mexican Special Forces, Air Force assets, and National Guard rapid-reaction teams, underscores the extraordinary force now required to confront cartel leadership. As smoke rose over Puerto Vallarta and authorities warned of ongoing “clashes,” one reality became painfully clear: Mexico’s fight against organized crime has evolved into something far closer to counter-insurgency warfare, where the line between cartel and insurgency grows thinner with every rocket launcher seized.