Deadliest drug boss
avocado farm. Four years later he got a job guarding a weed crop before sneaking into California and setting up as a small-time dealer.
He and his cousin were caught trafficking and he was deported in the early 1990s.
But on his return to Mexico, he managed to hide his criminal past and landed a job ob with the
Jalisco state police. e.
He left for the Millennium
Cartel, an old ally of
Chapo’s mob, then en set up his own firm a decade ago which swiftly y became known for its horrifying mass murders.
Barbaric
“Its method of killing is more akin kin to ISIS than the he cartels,” adds Solis. s. “Never before has s how they kill, in n the numbers that t they kill, been seen in Mexico.”
When Mencho is cornered he displays his most t barbaric streak.
On May 1, 2015, 15, the Mexican army my planned to strike back at him with Operation ation Jalisco. In a pre- - dawn raid, elite paratroopers and federal police flown in by two military helicopters descended on a ranch where they believed Mencho was hiding. But the cartel was waiting in armoured trucks.
One of the helicopters was hit, sending it crashing down in flames. Eight soldiers and a police officer were killed.
Hours later, , Mencho ordered his men to set fire to dozens of hijacked cars, buses, trucks, pe petrol stations and banks – gridloc gridlocking traffic and bringing Jalisco to its knees.
The Mexican government was forced to send in 10,000 troops to secure the state. N Now, in the wake of Chapo’s jailing jailing, the DEA and Mexican authorities au are strengthening strength their bid to bring b Mencho down. dow If he were captured cap tomorrow, US authorities would wo be expected to request his extradition, as they rdt did with Chapo.
But one DEA source doubts it will get that far.
“Mencho’s such a killer, I’d be b surprised if he was wa captured alive,” he s said.