![\"\"](\"https:\/\/21stcenturywire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/El-Mencho.png\")
<\/a>\n<\/b><\/strong>Freddie Ponton
\n21st Century Wire<\/p>\n
A resort city under martial law. Thousands of tourists are trapped in hotel lobbies. The international airport shuttered as smoke rose from burning barricades. This is Puerto Vallarta in February 2026, not after a natural disaster, but after the Mexican state eliminated Nemesio \u201cEl Mencho\u201d Oseguera Cervantes, the most wanted capo of the\u00a0Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG)<\/span><\/a>. The violence that followed his death did not erupt from nowhere. It was armed, trained, financed and mapped by a global security and weapons system that connects\u00a0Arizona gun shows<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Israeli military contractors<\/span><\/a>, a\u00a0new US military\u2011led task force in Colorado Springs<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to the mountain roads of\u00a0Tapalpa<\/span><\/a>, and the\u00a0battlefields of Ukraine<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to the skies over Michoac\u00e1n.<\/strong><\/p>\n Street unrest and clashes between the federal government, public and CJNG have hit cities and tourist hubs up and down Mexico\u2019s west coast, including Guadalajara, El Tuito, Tapalpa, Cancun, and others.<\/p>\n The people of the Jalisco region are not collateral damage in a distant war. They are the human cost of an international system that treats Mexico as a dumping ground for surplus arms, and the new global laboratory for privatised security.<\/p>\n The Architecture of Supply: How Legal Exports Become Cartel Weapons?<\/b><\/p>\n Between 2006 and 2018, European and Israeli arms manufacturers exported approximately 238,000 firearms to Mexico, including around 24,000 Israeli\u2011made weapons delivered by Israel Weapons Industries. Mexican police forces received 16,442 Galil and Tavor rifles and 7,398 Jericho pistols, along with sniper systems classified as arms for \u201cmilitary purposes.\u201d The report \u201cDeadly Trade<\/a>\u201d documents how Israeli rifles supplied to police in Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Guerrero and Jalisco later appeared in cartel arsenals and were allegedly used in\u00a0death\u2011squad operations in Veracruz<\/span>\u00a0between 2011 and 2014, as well as being recovered from safe houses in Michoac\u00e1n, Guerrero and Tamaulipas. The guns that were supposed to protect citizens from narco\u2011violence became instruments of that same violence, transferred through corruption, theft, or the simple indistinguishability of police and cartel operations.<\/p>\n SEE REPORT: \u201cDeadly Trade\u201d \u2013 How European and Israeli arms exports are accelerating violence in Mexico at <\/i>stopusarmstomexico<\/i><\/span><\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n <\/i>On the US side, the February 2026 report \u201cCorridors of Violence<\/a>\u201d finds that 62% of US\u2011sourced crime guns recovered in Mexico with short \u201ctime\u2011to\u2011crime\u201d intervals were bought in Arizona, and that 14 of the 15 US ZIP codes most frequently linked to trafficked weapons were in that state. Arizona and Texas\u2019s loose regimes allow weapons like\u00a050-calibre Barrett rifles,\u00a0<\/span>capable of downing helicopters and piercing armour, to be sold at gun shows with minimal oversight, while over 83% of traced guns seized in Mexico within a year of purchase originated in those two states.<\/p>\n The same study estimates that if seizure rates hold, more than 1,700 Barrett rifles a year could be flowing from US civilian markets into Mexico, meaning that a large share of the manufacturer\u2019s output ends up aimed back at Mexican security forces. The armoured \u201cmonsters,\u201d anti\u2011aircraft fire and spectacular convoys associated with CJNG are thus not anomalies, but the logical outcome of a border regime that polices people while letting this iron river run.<\/p>\n US Security Insiders in the Cartel\u2019s Financial Engine<\/b><\/p>\n Historically, these are a number of examples of U.S. intelligence using Latin American drug cartels and criminal syndicates to perform various functions in aid of a broader geopolitical agenda. From the late 1990\u2019s, core members of the notorious Zetas cartel comprised of former elite Mexican army soldiers, had initially\u00a0received all of their arms anf specialised military and intelligence training from the Pentagon and the CIA<\/a>, presumably to help the U.S. \u201cfight the war on drugs\u201d against the Mexican cartels. Later, when they began acting as the Los Zetas cartel, all of their skills and resources were then applied to organized crime. It would be naive to think that previous lines of communications and networking did not persist, despite their rebranding.<\/p>\n This brings us to the present day, after a recent\u00a0US indictment<\/a>\u00a0against former DEA official Paul Campo and alleged ex\u2011CIA asset\u00a0Robert Sensi<\/strong>\u00a0shows how this same ecosystem which claims to be fighting CJNG can also sell its expertise. Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York allege that Campo, after 25 years at the DEA and a stint as Deputy Chief of the Office of Financial Operations, agreed to help what he believed was a CJING emissary move and conceal up to $12 million in drug proceeds, while providing advice on trafficking and on sensitive investigative information gained in office.<\/p>\n According to the complaint and subsequent reporting, Campo and Sensi allegedly began converting cartel cash into cryptocurrency, discussed routing funds through real estate, and structured transactions to evade banks and financial\u2011crime units. Prosecutors say they laundered around $750,000 as a test, including a $200,000\u2011plus crypto transfer presented as payment for about 220 kilograms of cocaine destined for New York, expecting roughly $5 million in resale value.<\/p>\n Critically, court documents and press coverage indicate the conversations did not stop at money and cocaine. The informant posing as a CJNG representative boasted of\u00a0strapping explosives to drones<\/span>, while Sensi speculated about C\u20114 payloads capable of destroying entire facilities. The pair allegedly explored channels to acquire AR\u201115\u2011style rifles, M4 and M16 rifles, grenade launchers and rocket\u2011propelled grenades,\u00a0precisely the types of weapons visible in CJNG convoys<\/a>\u00a0and raids and that complement the Israeli\u2011made Tavors and Galils already documented on both police and cartel sides.<\/p>\n Both men have pleaded not guilty and are presumed innocent while the case proceeds. Nonetheless, the structure is\u00a0revealing<\/a>\u00a0and has allowed CJNG to avoid penetrating the obscure corners of the American underworld, affording the cartel to sit down with the type of people who once briefed Congress on how to fight cartel finance and offered them a cut.<\/p>\n The Human Terrain: What Occupation Looks Like in a Beach Resort?<\/b><\/p>\n When El Mencho was killed on 22 February 2026 in an Army operation in Tapalpa, the response was immediate. According to the special forces from the Mexican Army, supported by Air Force aircraft and a National Guard rapid\u2011reaction unit from the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense account (SEDENA), they engaged CJNG gunmen, killing four on site, wounding three (including El Mencho), who died while being airlifted to Mexico City.\u00a0Reportedly<\/a>, they detained two CJNG fighters alive, and left three soldiers wounded, while seizing armoured vehicles and rocket launchers \u201ccapable of downing aircraft and destroying armoured units.\u201d<\/p>\n Within hours,\u00a0CJNG operatives hijacked buses and cars, set them ablaze and blocked roads<\/span><\/a>\u00a0across Highways 200 and 15D and other routes into and out of Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara. The Puerto Vallarta airport effectively shut down as carriers cancelled almost all flights, and access roads became unpassable, even though authorities said the terminal itself remained secure under military and National Guard protection. Travellers were ordered to shelter in place, classes were suspended in multiple municipalities, and Jalisco declared a \u201cc\u00f3digo rojo\u201d security emergency. Yesterday, our Editor in Chief, Patrick Henningsen,\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0directly from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico:<\/p>\n
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\nIMAGE: Puerto Vallarta, a city renowned for its Los Muertos beach, its long Malec\u00f3n promenade and its parties (Source: Villa Experience)<\/em><\/p>\n