A high-ranking member of a Mexican cartel, who allegedly faked his own death to sneak into the United States, has been arrested two years after he was charged with drug trafficking.
Cristian Fernando Gutierrez-Ochoa, 37, is the son-in-law of Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación's (CJNG) leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, who is known as El Mencho, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday.
Officials arrested Gutierrez-Ochoa in Riverside, California, on Tuesday and is charged with international drug trafficking and money laundering offenses, following years of importing tons of methamphetamine and cocaine into the country.
"The Jalisco Cartel — one of the world's most violent and prolific drug trafficking organizations — is weaker today because of the tenacious efforts of law enforcement to track down and arrest a cartel leader who allegedly faked his own death and assumed a false identity to evade justice and live a life of luxury in California," Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a press release.
The DOJ said Gutierrez-Ochoa began working with CJNG in 2014, personally coordinating the transportation and distribution of around 88,000 pounds of methamphetamine and 4,400 pounds of cocaine from Mexico to the U.S.
In November 2021, the suspect allegedly kidnapped two members of the Mexican Navy, attempting to secure the release of El Mencho's wife from Mexican custody.
Gutierrez-Ochoa then fled to the U.S. and assumed a fake identity, having faked his death, to be with El Mencho's daughter. He lived in a luxury residence in California, the DOJ said, using proceeds from the cartel's activities.
If the suspect is found guilty, he faces a minimum of 10 years in prison.
Who is El Mencho?
It is believed El Mencho helped his son-in-law with the fake death, but his whereabouts remain unknown.
The U.S. Department of State says El Mencho, whose name is Nemesio Ruben Oseguera-Cervantes, founded CJNG in around 2009 as another cartel—Valencia/Milenio—began to lose power.
El Mencho allegedly used "extreme violence, corruption and extortion" to increase his cartel's presence in Mexico, forcing out other groups in the process.
Over the years since, CJNG has distributed multi-ton shipments of narcotics around Mexico and internationally, with El Mencho blamed for at least a third of the illegal drugs in the U.S. in 2019.
U.S. officials charged El Mencho in 2014 with offenses relating to drug trafficking, money laundering and unlawful us and possession of a firearm. A reward of up to $10 million is on offer for information which leads to his arrest.
"Defeating the two cartels responsible for the deadly drug crisis in the United States is the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)'s top operational priority, and with the arrest of Cristian Fernando Gutierrez-Ochoa, we are much closer," DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a press release.
"The Jalisco Cartel is responsible for unprecedented violence in Mexico and helping to fuel the deadly drug crisis in the United States. The DEA is relentlessly committed to defeating the Jalisco Cartel, and we will exhaust every tool in the justice system to fight back, to save American lives, and to bring this cartel to justice."
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