Security Forces Keep Up Fight With Cartel Gunmen Day After Mexican Military Killed Drug Lord

TAPALPA, Mexico (AP) — A day after the Mexican army killed the country’s most powerful drug lordThe picturesque town where the incident took place was a study in contrasts.

Tourist shops in Tapalpa were open and workers were at work on Monday. But gunshots were also heard and there was a dead man lying on the street next to a vehicle riddled with bullets.

Meanwhile, heavily armed Mexican security forces continued their fight against cartel gunmen following the murder that led to the incident. increase in violence and drag the country into the abyss. Cartel fighters continued to block roads as smoke rose from the outskirts of the town in Jalisco state.

More than 70 people lost their lives in clashes Nemesio Oseguera attempt to capture Cervantes and the aftermath, officials said Monday. He was known as “El Mencho”. famous leader between Jalisco New Generation CartelOne of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organizations.

The body count taken by security officials included members of the security forces, suspected cartel members, and others. Authorities did not provide details and the circumstances of many of the deaths were unclear.

Oseguera Cervantes was the boss of one of the fastest growing criminal networks in Mexico; He was known for smuggling fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine into the United States and launching brazen attacks against Mexican government officials. The organization responded to his death There was widespread violence, including setting up more than 250 roadblocks and setting vehicles on fire in 20 states.

Oseguera Cervantes lost his life in a conflict with the Mexican army. Mexican Defense Minister General Ricardo Trevilla said Monday that officials stalked one of their romantic partners To his hideout in Tapalpa.

The cartel leader and two bodyguards fled to a forested area, where they were seriously injured in the conflict. They were detained and died en route to Mexico City, Trevilla said.

In a different part of Jalisco, soldiers killed another high-ranking cartel member who Trevilla said coordinated the violence and offered more than $1,000 for each soldier killed.

Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said the dead included 25 members of the Mexican National Guard, killed in six separate attacks.

Harfuch said about 30 criminals were killed in Jalisco and four suspects were killed in the neighboring state of Michoacan. Among those killed were a guard and an agent from the prosecutor’s office.

The White House confirmed that the United States was providing intelligence support to the operation to capture the cartel leader and applauded the Mexican military for capturing a man who is one of the most wanted criminals in both countries.

Mexico had hoped the deaths of the world’s top fentanyl traffickers would ease pressure from the Trump administration to do more against the cartels, but many were anxious as they waited to see the powerful cartel’s reaction.

As threats of more violence emerged, many Mexican states canceled schools on Monday, while local and foreign governments warned their citizens to stay home.

Steve Perkins, 57, was visiting Puerto Vallarta with his wife and friends. The couple was scheduled to return to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, on Monday when their flight was canceled.

Perkins said he and his wife were drinking coffee on the terrace of their downtown hotel room when they heard an explosion around 8:30 a.m. They saw a large plume of smoke, heard another “massive explosion” and then saw more smoke. Perkins and his wife heard gunshots and knew “something was going on.”

“At one point there were seven or eight clouds of black, thick smoke around us and the entire downtown area by the bay was covered in thick black smoke, pretty scary,” Perkins told The Associated Press in a Zoom interview Monday. “And at one point we heard screaming. We heard a lot of screaming… Then we started to get really worried.”

Perkins said he and his wife became so worried that they took off their flip-flops and put on running shoes because “we might have to run.”

“My wife called to say goodbye to our kids if we were never going to see them again, that kind of thing. It was pretty disturbing,” said Perkins.

The U.S. Embassy, ​​via X, said its staff in eight cities and the state of Michoacan will shelter in place and work remotely on Monday. He warned U.S. citizens in many parts of Mexico to do the same.

There was light traffic in the state capital, Guadalajara, as the workweek began on Monday; This was a notable change from Sunday, when Mexico’s second-largest city was all but shut down as fearful residents stayed at home.

More than 1,000 people were trapped in the Guadalajara zoo, where they slept on buses overnight.

Zoo director Luis Soto Rendón said many people have been trapped here since Sunday morning, when violence broke out in Jalisco and surrounding states. The families concluded they could not return to their homes in nearby states such as Zacatecas and Michoacan.

“We decided to allow people to stay at the zoo for their safety,” Soto said. “There are little children and old people.”

José Luis Ramírez, a 54-year-old therapist, was in a long line waiting outside a pharmacy, one of the few businesses open in Guadalajara on Monday. Families were purchasing food, medicine, water, diapers and baby food from pharmacists through the chain gate.

It was Ramírez’s first time leaving home since the violence broke out.

“We should not think in fear, we should be cool-headed, as they say, and accept things as they are,” he said.

Those who needed to work carefully made their way to all corners of the city.

Irma Hernández, a 43-year-old hotel security guard in Guadalajara, normally takes public transportation to work, but buses were not running and she had no way to cross the city. His bosses arranged a special car to pick him up. He said his family was staying at home and he was afraid to leave.

“I’m worried because if something happens, I don’t know how to get home,” she said.

US President Donald Trump demanded that Mexico do more to combat fentanyl trafficking and threatened Mexico. impose more tariffs or take unilateral military action if the country does not show results.

The US State Department offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to El Mencho’s arrest. Jalisco New Generation Cartel It started operating around 2009.

In February 2025, the Trump administration designated the cartel as a foreign terrorist organization. It became one of the most aggressive cartels in its attacks on the military, including helicopters, and Pioneer in launching explosives and planting mines from UAVs.

At a blockade on the outskirts of Tapalpa on Monday, 25-year-old Joel Ramírez and two friends were waiting for soldiers to lift a blockade of tree branches. He hauls things in his truck for a living and has not been able to return home since Sunday’s violence.

“Everything seems calmer but we were almost there and stuck,” he said. “We are afraid.”

Verza reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writers Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City and Juan Lozano in Houston also contributed to this report.