A former Mexican federal agent who testified against the drug trafficker son of the country's most wanted man was shot dead in the central state of Morelos, authorities said Thursday.
Ivan Morales was a prosecution witness in the U.S. trial of Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez, a leader of Mexico's violent Jalisco New Generation cartel, who was jailed for life by a Washington court in March.
Gonzalez's father is Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes -- better known as "El Mencho" -- who heads the cartel and has a $15 million U.S. bounty on his head.
Morales and his wife were shot dead on Wednesday morning as they were traveling in their vehicle in the Temixco area, around 60 miles from Mexico City, according to a police report.
State prosecutors are investigating the crime and have not ruled out revenge as a possible motive, local media reported.
Morales had a decade ago, on May 1, 2015, survived one of Mexico's bloodiest drug trafficking attacks, when a military helicopter carrying 16 soldiers and two federal police officers was shot down in the western state of Jalisco.
Nine people died but Morales managed to escape from the burning wreckage, though he suffered severe burns that left part of his face disfigured.
That helicopter was flying in an ultimately unsuccessful mission to arrest "El Mencho."
In September, a federal jury convicted the younger Oseguera -- nicknamed "El Menchito" -- of conspiring to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine for U.S. importation and using a firearm in a drug conspiracy.
"El Menchito led the Jalisco Cartel's efforts to use murder, kidnapping, and torture to build the Cartel into a self-described 'empire' by manufacturing fentanyl and flooding the United States with massive quantities of lethal drugs," former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in September.
Mexican soldiers participate in a military operation during which Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez, aka "el Menchito" son of the leader of the Jalisco next Generation cartel, was arrested, in Guadalajara, Mexico on January 30, 2014.
HECTOR GUERRERO/AFP via Getty Images
Ruben Oseguera ordered the killings of at least 100 people, personally shot and killed at least two people and ordered subordinates to shoot down the Mexican military helicopter in 2015, prosecutors said.
The Jalisco New Generation cartel is one of the most powerful criminal gangs in Mexico and has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government. The group has been accused of using fake job advertisements to lure new members and of torturing and killing recruits who resist. In March, a group of people looking for missing relatives found charred bones, shoes and clothing at a suspected training ground for the cartel.
On Thursday, the Trump administration on Thursday imposed economic sanctions on three Mexican nationals and two Mexico-based entities involved in a drug trafficking and fuel theft network linked to the Jalisco cartel.
The new sanctions targeted top members Cesar Morfin Morfin (dubbed "Primito") and his brothers Alvaro Noe Morfin Morfin and Remigio Morfin Morfin, target the group's fuel theft network.
"Primito's luxurious lifestyle has included ownership of exotic animals and dozens of luxury vehicles," the Treasury said in a news release, while releasing an image of a jaguar allegedly seized from Primito by Mexican authorities in December 2023.
A jaguar seized from Primito by Mexican authorities in December 2023.
U.S. Treasury Department
U.S. officials allege Primito is involved in the transportation and distribution of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana into the United States.
The Treasury Department says that network has resulted in tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue to the Mexican government and also funds the flow of illicit fentanyl into the United States.