El Mencho Dead! And Mexico Explodes

We told you his life story in our 2022 episode, and now we're back with the sequel. El Mencho rose from poverty to build the CJNG into Mexico’s most violent and influential cartel, trafficking fent, meth and coke across the hemisphere. After years on the run with a huge U.S. bounty on his head, Mexican forces killed him in a daring military operation last week in Jalisco. The cartel responded with unprecedented retaliation: burning vehicles, massive roadblocks and bloody clashes with security forces that left dozens dead and airports and flights disrupted. His death has left a power vacuum in CJNG, sparking fear of a new wave of turf wars and uncertainty about what comes next in Mexico’s cartel wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can listen to El Mencho Dead! And Mexico Explodes online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

El Mencho Dead! And Mexico Explodes is an episode from The Underworld Podcast by The Underworld Podcast.

This episode is 72:20 long.

This episode was published on Mar 3, 2026.

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