Mexican drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, commonly known as ‘El Mencho,’ has been killed in a military operation, a government source familiar with the operation told Reuters on Sunday.

An ex-police officer, Oseguera was the shadowy leader of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), an outfit that took its moniker from the western state of the same name that is home to Mexico’s second city, Guadalajara.

Over a relatively short period of time, the CJNG morphed into a continents-spanning criminal enterprise rivaling his former allies in the Sinaloa Cartel, the gang of captured kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, now in a U.S. prison.

The news of Oseguera’s death followed a federal security operation in the state of Jalisco’s city of Tapalpa, according to a post by governor Pablo Lemus Navarro on X.

After the operation, multiple vehicles were set on fire throughout Jalisco and other states, according to media outlets and officials.

Alfredo Ramirez Bedolla, the governor of the state of Michoacan, wrote on X that he had received reports of state highways being blocked as a result of the operation in Jalisco.

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(Reporting by Emily Green and Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Christian Plumb)