Video does not show Mexican authorities capturing son of 'El Mencho'
- Published on February 24, 2026 at 18:38
- 3 min read
- By AFP Mexico
- Translation and adaptation AFP USA
Mexico deployed 10,000 troops to quell deadly clashes sparked by the February 22, 2026 killing of the country's most-wanted drug lord Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). But a video claimed online to show the arrest of Oseguera's son is unrelated, and in fact shows the capture of a different drug trafficker; the younger Oseguera -- Rubén -- was arrested in 2015.
"El Mencho's SON CAPTURED," says text over a reel posted to Facebook on February 22, 2026, which shows video that appears to have been flimed aboard a helicopter.
The same footage circulated widely in Spanish, and the claims it shows the capture of Oseguera Gonzalez -- nicknamed "El Menchito" -- also spread across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Threads and X.
The narrative gained considerable traction via a post from David Harris Jr -- a pro-Donald Trump commentator whom AFP has previously fact-checked for spreading misinformation.
"El Mencho," the most-wanted drug trafficker by the United States, was at 59 considered the last of the drug lords who acted in the brutal mold of the now-imprisoned Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, of the rival Sinaloa cartel.
He was wounded on February 22, 2026 in a shootout with Mexican soldiers in the town of Tapalpa, in Jalisco state, and died while being flown to Mexico City, the army said.
News of his death triggered spasms of violence, with cartel members blocking roads in 20 states and torching vehicles and businesses.
However, the footage circulating on social media is unrelated to these events -- and it does not show Oseguera's son, who is serving a life sentence in a US prison.
Reverse image searches using keyframes from the video surfaced an article published by the local newspaper El Orbe on February 4, 2026 (archived here).
The report features a longer version of the video and says it shows the arrest of "El Espíritu," another drug dealer linked to the CJNG cartel, in Ocozocoautla, Chiapas.
Keyword searches also yielded photos and videos showing other angles of the man's capture, identifiable by his beige pants (archived here, here and here).
On February 6, the Mexican Ministry of National Defense issued a statement confirming that the National Guard and the Mexican Army arrested "El Espíritu" on February 4, along with three other individuals (archived here).
The statement included another image showing the man wearing the same pants.
US-born Oseguera Gonzalez, meanwhile, was arrested and released four times between January 2014 and August 2015, when he was finally imprisoned on charges of being number two in the CJNG cartel.
"El Menchito" was extradited to the United States in 2020 and sentenced in 2025 to a term of life in prison plus 30 years for his role in a major drug-trafficking conspiracy (archived here).
With Oseguera dead and Oseguera Gonzalez in jail, experts have warned of a power vacuum that could lead to more violent realignments of CJNG members.
Read more of AFP's reporting on the CJNG cartel here.
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