For years, the cartel responsible for flooding American communities with fentanyl operated freely across all 50 states while Washington did nothing.
That changed the moment Donald Trump walked back into the Oval Office.
This past Sunday, the man behind hundreds of thousands of American overdose deaths met his end in a hail of gunfire – and the intelligence that found him came straight from the Trump administration.
Trump's CJNG Terrorist Designation Paid Off in 13 Months
El Mencho – the most wanted drug lord in Mexico – ran a criminal empire that the DEA itself called "one of the most significant threats to public health, public safety, and national security" in America.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which he founded around 2009 after arriving in the U.S. illegally and being deported twice, controlled drug distribution hubs in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Atlanta.
His cartel had between 15,000 and 20,000 members operating in nearly every American city.
His product – fentanyl, meth, cocaine – killed Americans by the tens of thousands every single year.
Trump saw this for what it was on Day One.
He signed an executive order designating CJNG a foreign terrorist organization, unlocking military-grade intelligence operations against the cartel's leadership.
That designation wasn't symbolic – it was a loaded weapon pointed directly at El Mencho's head.
The 13-Month DEA Hunt That Dismantled El Mencho's Empire
While Biden's team looked the other way for four years, Trump launched a systematic demolition campaign against El Mencho and everyone around him.
February 2025 – Trump secured the extradition of 29 high-ranking cartel leaders, including El Mencho's own brother, "Tony Montana," hauled to Washington in chains.
March 2025 – El Mencho's son and heir apparent, "El Menchito," was sentenced to life plus 30 years and ordered to forfeit $6 billion in drug proceeds.
September 2025 – A DEA surge targeting CJNG netted 670 arrests, $18 million in cash, and 92 kilograms of fentanyl powder alongside 1.1 million counterfeit pills.
By year's end, the DEA had seized 47 million fentanyl pills – enough to represent 369 million lethal doses – from CJNG smugglers alone.
Then, just 72 hours before the raid that killed El Mencho, Treasury sanctioned Kovay Gardens – a CJNG-controlled resort in Puerto Vallarta – cutting off $300 million in cartel revenue.
The noose was tightening.
Karoline Leavitt Confirmed What Trump's Critics Refused to Believe
When Mexican forces cornered El Mencho in the small highland town of Tapalpa, Jalisco, they did it with American intelligence guiding every step.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the U.S. provided "intelligence support" that helped eliminate the cartel leader.
"President Trump has been very clear," Leavitt said – "the United States will ensure narcoterrorists sending deadly drugs to our homeland are forced to face the wrath of justice they have long deserved."
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau called El Mencho "one of the bloodiest and most ruthless drug kingpins" and declared his death "a great development for Mexico, the US, Latin America, and the world."
Former acting DEA Administrator Derek Maltz put it plainly on Fox News: Trump said protecting Americans would be his top priority, and this operation proved he meant it.
El Mencho entered America illegally in the 1980s, got convicted of heroin conspiracy, got deported, came back, got deported again – and then built the most powerful drug cartel in Mexico.
Democrats called Trump's terrorist designation extreme and unnecessary.
The 369 million lethal doses seized from CJNG proved them wrong.
Trump's "total elimination" strategy – not managing the cartels, not engaging with them, but destroying them completely – just took down the man the DEA considered public enemy number one.
The cartel is still out there, and the violence that erupted across 20 Mexican states after El Mencho's death confirms exactly what kind of terrorist organization Trump designated them as.
But the architect of America's fentanyl nightmare is dead, and the intelligence that found him came from a president who actually means business.
Sources:
- Adam Sabes, "Narcotics expert reveals slain drug kingpin 'El Mencho's' deadly impact on Americans," Fox News, February 24, 2026.
- "Inside the Trump admin's shadow war of 'total elimination' against 'El Mencho'," Fox News, February 23, 2026.
- "Major drug lord 'El Mencho' killed in Mexican military operation with US intelligence support," Fox News, February 22, 2026.
- Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary statement on X, February 22, 2026.
- DEA 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
- U.S. State Department Reward Posting for Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, December 2024.
- "The Violence in Mexico Vindicates Trump's Push to Treat Drug Cartels As Terrorists Organizations," Townhall, February 23, 2026.