‘El Guacho’ and ‘El Chorro’: Who Are ‘El Mencho’s’ Sons-in-Law and What Has Been Their Role in the CJNG?
The romantic partners of the two daughters of the founder of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel have become involved in illicit activities that have placed them on the radar of Mexican and U.S. authorities.
A franchise model whose operation is governed by a single command is the key that has allowed the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) to become the first criminal organization to achieve a presence in each of the 32 states that make up the Mexican Republic. While all the cells deployed by the four-letter cartel in the country answer to Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho—as he is also known—has integrated some of his closest relatives into the top ranks of his criminal organization.
From his brothers-in-law, Los Cuinis, who are responsible for his financial management, to his stepson, Juan Carlos Valencia González, who commands various armed groups to the point of being considered second-in-command of the organization, the list of El Mencho’s family members linked to criminal activities also includes the romantic partners of his daughters, Laisha Michelle and Jessica Johanna Oseguera González.
These two sisters, along with Rubén Oseguera González, alias El Menchito, are the children of Nemesio Oseguera González and Rosalinda González Valencia. Each of these individuals faces charges in both Mexico and the United States, as do Cristian Fernando Gutierrez Ochoa and Julio Alberto Castillo Rodríguez.
El Guacho: the son-in-law whom El Mencho helped fake his death
Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez, alias ‘El Guacho’ and son-in-law of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, ‘El Mencho’.
In late 2024, a luxurious property in Riverside, California, became the scene of a major blow dealt by U.S. authorities to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). The property was inhabited by Laisha Michelle Oseguera González and her partner, Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez Ochoa, better known as El Guacho, who was arrested on November 19 of that year.
The Department of Justice described El Mencho’s son-in-law as one of his closest collaborators, who oversaw the importation of tons of methamphetamine and cocaine into the United States, in addition to participating in violent acts to support the cartel’s criminal activities.
“It is alleged that Gutiérrez Ochoa, 37, began working for the CJNG, one of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels, around 2014 and personally coordinated the transportation and distribution of approximately 40,000 kilograms of methamphetamine and approximately 2,000 kilograms of cocaine in Mexico, all destined for the United States,” reads the statement regarding his arrest.
El Guacho’s involvement in the activities of the four-letter cartel is no coincidence. News reports indicate that he is the son of José Luis Gutiérrez Valencia, better known as Don Chelo, El 77, or El Ojo de Vidrio (Glass Eye), whom authorities initially identified as a member of the Sinaloa Cartel but later placed in the CJNG’s organizational chart as the plaza boss for Puerto Vallarta.
Originally from Cotija, Michoacán, Don Chelo was arrested in January 2010 by authorities following an investigation into an attack on state police officers with grenades. At the time of his arrest, the father-in-law of El Mencho was found in possession of a small arsenal, including a grenade launcher, AR-15 and AK-47 rifles, three .38 caliber pistols, three 9mm pistols, and five grenades. Authorities also seized approximately 750 plastic packets of suspected cocaine and 550 rocks of base cocaine.
José Luis Gutiérrez Valencia faced charges of corruption of minors, possession of firearms restricted to the Mexican Army, drug trafficking, and bribery for allegedly offering the arresting officers 46,260 pesos in cash.
José Luis Gutiérrez Valencia, alias “Don Chelo,” was incarcerated in the Puente Grande prison in Jalisco in 2010.
José Luis Gutiérrez Valencia, ‘Don Chelo’, has been imprisoned in the Puente Grande prison in Jalisco since 2010.
Don Chelo was imprisoned in the Puente Grande prison in Jalisco and once again garnered media attention in 2017 after a recording of a party he had organized years earlier inside the prison went viral. The party, featuring the band Los Buchones de Culiacán, was filled with cell phones, alcoholic beverages, and numerous items prohibited in any prison.
That video foreshadowed the influence the four-letter cartel had accumulated, which even allowed it to maintain a degree of self-governance within the Puente Grande prison. Just ten days after Don Chelo’s release in 2017, he was killed in an armed confrontation with members of the Mexican Navy in Tonalá, Jalisco.
After his death, his sons José Luis and Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez Ochoa—aliases El Tolín and El Guacho, respectively—were tasked with continuing his criminal legacy. However, the former’s luck ran out in 2018 after his arrest at an exclusive golf club in Bahía de Banderas, Nayarit.
El Guacho, for his part, not only remained at the forefront of criminal activities but also maintained a romantic relationship with Laisha Michelle Oseguera González, daughter of the CJNG founder. Both Mexican and U.S. authorities link this couple to the kidnapping of two members of the Mexican Navy in November 2021 in Zapopan, Jalisco.
Sources within the Navy, consulted by Rubén Mosso for MILENIO, identified Laisha Michelle Oseguera González and Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez Ochoa as the perpetrators of the naval personnel’s disappearance. They allegedly orchestrated the crime in retaliation for the recapture of Rosalinda González Valencia.
Although both marines were found alive in Puerto Vallarta at least five days later, the case prompted a manhunt for El Mencho’s daughter and son-in-law. Court documents cited in a Justice Department statement indicate that the CJNG leader may have helped El Guacho fake his death by spreading the rumor that he had killed him for disloyalty.
‘El Guacho’ signed a plea agreement in the US.
This factor would have been key in enabling both Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez Ochoa and Laisha Michelle Oseguera Cervantes to flee to the United States, where El Guacho assumed a false identity and lived in a luxury residence purchased by CJNG money launderers with drug trafficking proceeds.
El Mencho’s son-in-law faced charges related to international drug trafficking and money laundering. However, according to reports by Angel Hernández for MILENIO, last May El Guacho pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to launder monetary instruments in the federal court of Washington.
This decision led the prosecution to dismiss the charge related to cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking that had also been brought against him. The Department of Justice requested a 14-year prison sentence for Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez Ochoa on the money laundering charge, although his defense requested only seven. El Guacho will hear his sentence on December 18.
El Chorro and the control of the port of Manzanillo
Julio Alberto Castillo emerges as possible successor to ‘El Mencho’
On June 23, 2015, the leadership of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel suffered what is considered the most severe blow to its structure when Rubén Oseguera González, alias El Menchito, was arrested in Zapopan, Jalisco. At just 25 years old, El Mencho’s son was already considered the second-in-command of his father’s criminal organization, a position he displayed with the arsenal seized from him and the influence he attempted to exert to negotiate his release.
That day, not only was the so-called Prince of Jalisco drug trafficking arrested, but also his brother-in-law, Julio Alberto Castillo Rodríguez, husband of Jessica Johanna Oseguera González, El Mencho’s daughter and El Menchito’s sister.
Just eight days later, on July 1, Julio Alberto Castillo Rodríguez was released after insufficient evidence was presented to formally charge him. Luck was not the same for El Menchito, who, after being released a couple of times before, faced his inevitable fate: extradition and a life sentence in the United States.
Julio Alberto Castillo Rodríguez continued to be involved in criminal activities and was even recaptured in 2016 in Guadalajara while carrying four long guns, one of them with a grenade launcher attachment. In a statement, the Ministry of the Interior described Castillo, also known as El Chorro, as an important financial operator for the CJNG and as El Mencho’s son-in-law.
Although the conditions under which he was released are unknown, investigations by the organized crime news outlet Borderland Beat also place Julio Alberto Castillo as a key figure in the conflict that the CJNG waged against the Nueva Plaza Cartel in various municipalities of Jalisco.
Likewise, El Mencho’s son-in-law has been sanctioned on multiple occasions by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department for his activities within the four-letter cartel.
‘El Chaparrito’, the alleged regional head of the CJNG in Colima, is subordinate to El Mencho’s son-in-law.
U.S. investigations place him as a prominent member of the organization who has managed to accumulate significant influence in Colima, to the point of controlling part of the port of Manzanillo, a position that has facilitated the acquisition of chemical precursors that the CJNG uses to manufacture fentanyl and other illicit drugs that are smuggled across the northern border.
To exercise this control, El Mencho’s son-in-law has subordinates such as the brothers Aldrin Miguel and José Jesús Jarquín Jarquín, Cesar Enrique Díaz de León Sauceda, and Fernando Zagal Antón.
“The criminal success of the CJNG is due in part to its presence in strategic locations, such as Manzanillo […] Together, they help coordinate the CJNG’s drug trafficking operations through the port of Manzanillo and maintain contact with cocaine supply sources in Colombia,” U.S. authorities added.
El Chorro’s activities continue to be largely concentrated in Mexico; however, his wife, Jessica Johanna Oseguera González, faced legal proceedings in the United States after being charged in a federal court in Washington for participating in money laundering activities. La Negra, as she is also known, was arrested after attending one of her brother El Menchito’s hearings.
The US agrees to recommend 51-month sentence for daughter of CJNG’s ‘El Mencho’.
According to reports by Juan Alberto Vázquez for MILENIO, El Mencho’s daughter pleaded guilty and was sentenced to approximately two and a half years in prison. However, months before completing her sentence, she was released in April 2022.
The power that the CJNG has attained has made the children of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes and Rosalinda González Valencia targets for authorities on both sides of the border. However, beyond their criminal history, their involvement, and that of their romantic partners, in the cartel’s activities demonstrates how important it is for El Mencho that everything stays within the family.
Source: Milenio
The post ‘El Guacho’ and ‘El Chorro’: Who Are ‘El Mencho’s’ Sons-in-Law and What Has Been Their Role in the CJNG? appeared first on Cartel Insider.
Read the full article on Cartel Insider →
