Inside the Most Dangerous Cartel You’ve Never Seen | Dhruv Rathee

Hello friends! On Sunday morning of 22nd February, 2026, no one had imagined that the world's most wanted drug lord would be hiding in such a place. A small mountainous tourist town in Mexico, Tapalpa.

There are stone roads, tourist shops, green mountains, but in the outskirts of this beautiful town, in the middle of the jungle, in a cabin complex, was hiding El Mencho. El Mencho was the man who was awarded $15 million by the US.

And this man was so secretive that the world had only a few photos of him. That too in the 1980s and 90s, during his old arrest. No one knew how this man looked like today. But on 20th February, Mexican intelligence got a very important lead.

Tracking an associate of El Mencho's romantic partner, the authorities found out that that associate had taken that partner to a secluded rural property outside Tapalpa. The same secret place where El Mencho was hiding. On 21st February, his partner left the place

but El Mencho stayed there with his bodyguards.

I met El Mencho.

The couple met with Mencho at that location. And on February 21st, they left the building and information was obtained that Mencho was still there.

Here, the Mexican forces get the opportunity they have been waiting for for years. On 22nd February, before the dawn, the Mexican special forces, National Guard, Air Force and Army surrounded this compound from all sides. To avoid any suspicion, the mission was executed primarily by the ground forces so that there would be no suspicion. Helicopters were used very limitedly. As soon as the soldiers moved towards the compound, the cartel gunmen started firing.

Heavy fire was fired. The security forces killed 4 cartel members. But El Mencho ran away from the compound with his bodyguards and went to a wooden cabin complex in the nearby jungle. The security forces followed him and the second round of shooting took place there. Finally, the soldiers caught El Mencho seriously injured with 2 bodyguards. He was airlifted to Mexico City, but dies on the way.

A former DEA chief describes this operation as one of the most significant actions in the history of drug trafficking. But the story doesn't end here. No one had imagined what happened after his death. A drug lord's death sets the entire country on fire. But the question arises, who who was El Mencho? And how did his cartel become so powerful?

In 1992, in California, the police caught a small drug dealer. He was dealing in heroin. He was sent to jail and later deported. But no one thought that this man would become the most wanted drug lord in the world after 20 years. This story begins in 1966, from Aguililla, Mexico's Michoacan state. An area where poverty was at its peak

and where illegal marijuana plantations were planted in the mountains. El Mencho's real name was Nemesio Jose Guerra Cervantes. His family was an avocado farmer. And to help his family, he dropped out of school in the 5th grade. In the beginning, he worked in agriculture. But by the time he was 14,

his job was to protect the marijuana fields. In the 1980s, in search of a better life, he went to America and started living in California. He had a lot of dreams of the great American dream. But instead of a better life, he only got crime in America.

In 1986, the San Francisco police arrested him for stealing and keeping a loaded gun. The officers suspected that he was a meth dealer. After hiding for a few years, in 1992, he was caught selling heroin in an imperial bar in San Francisco. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison. It was only in January 1997 that Mencho was released on parole and deported back to Mexico. He was 30 years old at the time.

And here's a big twist in the story. After returning to Mexico, Mencho becomes a police officer. You heard it right, my friend. A convicted drug dealer becomes a police officer. He works for the police for a few years and in these years, he understands the inner working of the police. He understands how to buy a Mexican police in a small amount of money.

Which officer sells in how much and where are the holes in the system. This knowledge was going to become one of his most dangerous weapons in the future. During this time, he marries Rosalinda Gonzalez Valencia. A woman who came from a powerful cartel family. And this marriage became her entry ticket in organized crime. In the beginning, she became a bodyguard hitman in the Millenio Cartel of the Valencia family.

But by the year 2010, all the cart cartel were either dead or in jail. Mencho asked for leadership. He didn't get it. So he separated himself and formed his own group. Cartel Chalisco Nueva Generacion, meaning CJNG.

Fast forward five years later. In May 2015, the Mexican military launched Operation Chalisco to capture El Mencho. Military helicopters were used but CJNG was already aware of it. The cartel gunmen had RPG-27 rocket launchers and heavy machine guns. When the helicopters came to attack the cartel,

they used the rocket launchers and machine guns to blow up the helicopter. Only 9 out of 18 military men survived. They were also seriously wounded. Think about it, a drug cartel dropped a military helicopter. This cartel was so powerful that it set fire to dozens of buses, trucks and gas stations in different parts of Mexico. The Mexican government had to send 10,000 troops to control it. A federal investigator even said that

after Pablo Escobar, no drug mafia had ever faced such a direct confrontation with the authorities.

Pablo Escobar.

Yes, Pablo Escobar.

But the question is, how did CJNG become so powerful? The answer is two chemicals. Methamphetamine and fentanyl. CJNG was not an ordinary drug cartel. It operated like a paramilitary force. According to the DEA estimates,

the drugs imported from the US in 2019 were at least one third of the total amount of this drug cartel. By 2018, CJNG had more than 100 meth labs in Mexico. Compared to cocaine and heroin, the profit margins in meth were many times higher. And the biggest thing, for cocaine, it had to depend on Colombian suppliers. But meth could be made by itself by importing chemicals from China.

Some experts estimate that CJNG's war chest was worth more than $20 billion. A whole port of Mexico, Port of Manzanillo, was under the control of this cartel group. Raw materials imported from China were imported from this port, which were used to make meth. There's an interesting pattern in this story. CJNG controlled Port of Manzanillo because it was accessible from a single access point. Chemicals, logistics, supply chain, everything at one place.

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Let's come back to the topic for now. But more dangerous than meth, there was another product that made CGNG its future. A product that is so deadly that a person can die

with just 2 milligrams of it. I'll talk about it in the next video. But before that, the question is how did the cartels in Mexico become so powerful that they started fighting with the government?

Imagine a Mexican mayor whose salary is 30,000 Pesos per month. One night, an SUV comes to his house. Inside, there are cartel members. One hand holds a briefcase which has 5 lakh Pesos.

And the other hand and a gun in the other. The cartel's man calls the mayor, Plata Oplomo. It means, either take the money or take the bullet. This is not an imaginary story, friends. This story repeats itself in hundreds of cities every week, every month in Mexico. You must be wondering how this system was made.

It's roots come from a political party, PRI. It's full form in English is Institutional Revolutionary Party. A party that ruled Mexico for 71 years like a single one party. From 1929 to 2000, the central government of PRI was so weak that instead of eliminating organized crime, they started dealing with them.

This is called the Plaza System. The rules were very simple. These cartels will keep public violence limited. They won't threaten the PRI officials. And in return, from the mayors to the governors,

everyone will get a mordida. That is, a bribe. Imagine, friends, the whole country is on a weekly income. In 2000, when the power of the PRI was over, the whole system was shattered.

In 2006, President Felipe Calderon announced war against the cartels. Thousands of soldiers were deployed and 25 of Mexico's top 37 drug kingpins were killed or arrested. But the problem with this war on drugs was that if one drug leader was killed, the other would take his place. If one kingpin was removed, two more would come. This led to dozens of smaller and more dangerous gangs.

They toppled drug kingpins and hit cartels so hard that many shattered into smaller, ultra-violent gangs.

Because of the increasing violence, so hard that many shattered into smaller ultra-violent gangs. If they stop fighting with the media and end poverty and unemployment, crime will automatically decrease.

The strategy of fighting insecurity and violence will change. We will address the causes of insecurity and violence rather than the use of force.

But unfortunately, its implementation was also failing. Neither the war work nor the hug were of any use. And there was something else behind it. The most shocking thing about this whole story is that the Americans were the hug was of any use. And there was another reason behind it. The most shocking thing about this story is that the Americans were the victims of these drugs. But America was the architect of this drug crisis.

And this was not just one mistake. But a chain of repeated mistakes where America kept on attacking itself. In the first year of 1980, the CIA supported the Contra rebels against the socialist government of Nicaragua.

These Contras got their training and money from the Mexican drug cartel. The Washington Post exposed in July 1990 how the CIA trained the Contra rebels at the ranch of Rafael Caro Quintero, the biggest drug lord of Mexico. That is, the CIA was openly using the property of a drug trafficker. And this was not a conspiracy theory. Because this was proven in America's own Senate investigation,

the Kerry Committee report of April 1989. America made these drug cartels so powerful for its political agenda. And today, they became its biggest enemy. Second, the NAFTA of 1994, North American Free Trade Agreement. According to this, trade restrictions were reduced between the US, Canada and Mexico.

The officials who had warned that NAFTA would open the border for drugs, were silenced in the debates of Congress. Before this trade agreement, 7,500 trucks used to pass through the border in a day. But after this, it increased to 12,000 trucks. It was physically impossible to check every truck. So the drug trade increased even more.

That is, America opened the highway for drugs. NAFTA has another dangerous side effect. America starts dumping its cheap crops in Mexico. The price of corn for Mexican farmers fell by more than 65% for Mexican farmers. Between 1991 and 2007, around 20 lakh farmers had to leave their farms in Mexico.

These unemployed farmers later became the foot soldiers of these drug cartels. The third is weapons. 70% of the firearms recovered in Mexico were American. There are 6,700 gun dealers in the border region. This happens every mile, 3 gun dealers. The Mexican government estimates that 2 lakh firearms are smuggled from America every year.

The fourth point is the most absurd. The American agencies, under Operation Fast and Furious, deliberately let more than 2,000 firearms go to Mexico. The US agencies intended to track these guns and reach the criminal organizations. But the US agencies couldn't track these weapons. And later, these guns were used against the Americans.

So, here, you're understanding the role of America, friends? First, let the cartels grow. Then open the borders. And then send more than 2 lakh guns. Then when people start dying from these guns, send 2000 more guns saying that this is our plan. Such useless plans were only used by Abhishek Bachchan in his films.

We make him rob again.

Now let's come to the product I mentioned earlier. The product that made CJNG its future. This is Fentanyl. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. A very dangerous drug. Which is 50 times more powerful than heroin.

Imagine you have some sand grains on your palm. This small amount, only 2 milligrams, is enough to kill a person. And its economics is even more amazing. To make a fentanyl pill, it takes 10 cents. That is 8-9 rupees.

While this pill is sold for 10-30 dollars. For 1000-3000 rupees. A drug cartel that is making this pill, their production cost is only 50,000 dollars. And the profit is up to 20 million dollars. Its loss is also going to shock you.

In 2023, approximately 73,000 drug overdose deaths in America were caused by synthetic opioids. Around 70% of these deaths were caused by fentanyl. Even travel content creator Ananya Sood, if you remember, her death was also caused by accidental fentanyl overdose, according to US authorities. So now you can imagine how serious this issue is. And how dangerous the harmful effects of this drug are.

In the fentanyl crisis, the role of CJNG has been very big. In 2013, El Manchito's son said that he wanted to make a fentanyl empire. This was before the fentanyl epidemic started in America. In September 2024, the US court found El Manchito guilty and in March 2025,

he was sentenced to life imprisonment. His son was in jail, but by this point, his father was still free. At least till the morning of 22nd February 2026. The operation that I talked about in the beginning of the video,

in which El Manchito is killed after his injuries. But as soon as the news of his death spread, CJNG wreaked havoc in the whole of Mexico. A senior leader of the cartel, El Tuli, who was El Mencho's right-hand man, ordered coordinated attacks. He gave 20,000 Mexican Pesos,

that is, around $1,100, in exchange for killing each soldier. Think about it, once again, how strange is it that a cartel is keeping a bounty to kill the soldiers of its own country. After this, the cartel's gunmen set fire to 20 different states. Cars were burnt, highways were blocked, businesses were destroyed, more than 250 roadblocks were built, schools were closed, flights were cancelled. Mexico's second largest city, Guadalajara, became a ghost town.

Wreaking news coming in from Mexico, Guadalajara is witnessing unusual scenes tonight, with large parts of the city appearing almost deserted amid rising tensions.

Security analysts say that in this violent response of CJNG members, there are signs of narco-terrorism. This could be a scenario like the 1980s Colombia, when Pablo Escobar started a war against the attack. This could be a scenario like the one in Colombia in the 1980s when Pablo Escobar started a war against the state. It seems that all the main CJNG commanders

are attacking the Mexican state. They are attacking their own country. According to some security analysts, if Cartel is trying to end this operation, then the Mexican country can be attacked by a total war.

Now the question is, what will happen next? El Mencho's succession line is broken. His son is in jail in America. His wife was arrested in Mexico in November 2021 on money laundering charges. His two brothers are also rotting in Mexican jails.

Only four remaining CJNG commanders can now start a succession war. In America, the Trump government has declared the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. And it didn't stop at just declarations. In September 2025, the American military did something that had never happened before. They started dropping bombs on alleged drug trafficking vessels in international waters.

Under Operation Southern Spear, at least 150 people have been killed in 44 strikes so far. America is dropping bombs on boats in the open sea without any trial

or evidence. Every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence. We have no choice.

According to human rights groups, this is illegal in international law. And many victims were civilian fishermen. On 9th January 2026, Trump had said on Fox News that he would also attack the cartels on the ground.

We are going to start now hitting the land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico. It's very sad to watch and see what's happened to that country.

And the US Defense Secretary has also told the cartels about the Al-Qaeda in the Western Hemisphere. This is why the pressure on the cartels to take action is increasing on the Mexican President, Claudia Sheinbaum. El Mencho's killing is the biggest success of his government. He wanted to show that Mexico can fight the cartels on its own.

And there is no need for the help of the American forces. But the real question here is, will drug cartels finally end in Mexico after all this? History shows that whenever a drug lord has been removed from Mexico, two more have been found. In reality, the solution is to address the root causes.

As long as there is demand in America, Mexico will continue to supply. As long as American guns are crossing the border to Mexico, the Mexican cartels will continue to fight. As long as the cartels pay more than the monthly salary of local police officers in Mexico, corruption will't stop.

And until the raw materials of fentanyl and meth come from China, this supply chain won't break. This is not just a problem of Mexico or America alone. It's a shared crisis whose solution will also be shared. A few months from today, in June 2026, the four matches of the FIFA World matches will be held in Mexico.

The world's biggest sporting event will be held in the most dangerous cartel area in the world. This is the story of a drug lord who kept the entire government in his pocket. But this doesn't happen only in Mexico, my friend. There was a man in America who kept the most powerful people in the world, Presidents, Prime Ministers, Princes, Billionaires, everyone in his grasp. His name was Jeffrey Epstein.

Epstein's story is more disturbing than the Mexican drug cartel. Because he not only blackmailed crime, but the entire system. You can learn the whole story by clicking here in this video. And don't forget to download AI-Fiesta. The link is in the description. The link is in the description.

Thank you very much.