The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) is suspected of abducting two members of the navy as retaliation for the arrest of the wife of the cartel’s leader.

Rosalinda González Valencia, wife of Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, was captured in Zapopan, Jalisco, on Monday by soldiers working in conjunction with the federal Attorney General’s Office and the National Intelligence Center.

Suspected CJNG members kidnapped a navy captain’s secretary and his driver in the same municipality the next day.

According to a report by the newspaper Reforma, the two navy personnel were abducted at a shopping center in Zapopan, located in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara. The vehicle in which they had been traveling, a white Jeep, was later found abandoned.

Meanwhile, federal forces carried out an operation in Zapopan on Wednesday to locate and capture El Mencho’s daughter, Laisha Michelle Oseguera González, and her partner, Christian Fernando Gutiérrez Ochoa. Marines raided homes in affluent neighborhoods of Zapopan but neither Oseguera nor Gutiérrez was found.

However, two other people were detained and questioned about the whereabouts of Laisha Oseguera, Reforma reported. Two properties that allegedly belong to members of Los Cuinis, a gang formed by Rosalinda González’s brothers that is considered the CJNG’s financial arm, were seized.

Federal forces also carried out operations in Jalisco, Nayarit, Michoacán and Guanajuato to locate El Mencho, according to military sources cited by Reforma.  Some 450 elite soldiers and marines were involved in the search for cartel leader, who is wanted in both Mexico and the United States. Helicopters and drones supported the operations.

A United States Drug Enforcement Agency agent claimed in 2019 that El Mencho was hiding out in the mountains of western Mexico.

“He hides in the mountainous areas of Jalisco, Michoacán and Colima. We think he’s not in the cities anymore,” said Kyle Mori.

Later in 2019, there were reports that the capo was planning to return to his home town in the municipality of Aguililla, where the CJNG is engaged in a turf war with the Cárteles Unidos. However, there has been no confirmation that that occurred and El Mencho’s whereabouts remains a mystery.

With reports from Reforma