U.S. arrests more than 250 tied to drug cartel

WASHINGTON >> The U.S. arrested more than 250 people and seized 1,323 pounds of illegal narcotics on Wednesday, as part of a broader crackdown known as “Project Python” that targets the Mexican drug cartel known as the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion. The announcement comes about a month after the U.S. unveiled criminal charges against the daughter of the cartel’s recognized leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, better known as “El Mencho,” and extradited his son to the U.S. to stand trial.

The cartel is “one of the most prolific drug trafficking organizations in the world,” the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon said during a press conference on Wednesday. “They have over 100 methamphetamine labs in Mexico and this country is being flooded with methamphetamine.”

Justice Department officials said that in its sixmonth run, Project Python has led to the arrests of more than 750 people tied to the cartel and the seizure of 20,000 kilograms of drugs.

In February, the cartel’s No. 2 in command Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez aka “Menchito” was extradited to the United States from Mexico to face drug trafficking and firearm charges in Washington, D.C. He has pleaded not guilty.

His sister and the drug cartel leader’s daughter Jessica Johanna Oseguera Gonzalez aka La Negra, meanwhile, was arrested in February where she too will stand trial in Washington on financial charges.