Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, 67, of Michoacan, Mexico — the cartel figure known as “Tony Montana” and the brother of the late Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) leader “El Mencho” — was sentenced on Friday, November 13, 2026, to 270 months in federal prison for international drug trafficking and firearm offences, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. The sentence is 22 and a half years.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said: “For more than two decades, Antonio Oseguera Cervantes helped fuel one of the world's most dangerous drug trafficking organizations, flooding America's communities with deadly drugs while enriching himself and his associates.” Duva said the sentence sends a message that the department is committed to the total elimination of drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations, including the CJNG.
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Terry Cole said no cartel leader is beyond the reach of American justice. “Oseguera Cervantes was far more than El Mencho's brother. He played a significant role in building CJNG into one of the most violent foreign terrorist organizations in the world, trafficking massive quantities of dangerous drugs that have devastated American families and communities,” Cole said.
Two decades inside two cartels
According to court documents cited by the Justice Department, Oseguera Cervantes distributed cocaine and methamphetamine for importation into the United States and supplied chemicals to methamphetamine laboratories, first for the Milenio Cartel and later for the CJNG. He joined the Milenio Cartel around 2002, shortly after serving a federal prison sentence in the United States for conspiracy to distribute heroin. He was then deported to Mexico, where, the department says, he resumed his illicit activities.
As a Milenio leader, he oversaw narcotics sales, protected cartel territory from rival groups and supervised methamphetamine laboratories, according to court documents. In 2010, after the Milenio Cartel's top leader was arrested, its military faction separated to create the CJNG. His brother Nemesio — “Mencho” — co-founded the CJNG and led it from 2010 until he was killed in a Mexican military operation in February 2026. Oseguera Cervantes reported directly to Mencho, worked with the CJNG-aligned group Los Cuinis, managed the cartel's drug-proceed collection and laundering, and was armed with a pistol when collecting proceeds and attending trafficking meetings, the department said.
Capture in Mexico, transfer in 2025, guilty plea in July
Mexican soldiers found Oseguera Cervantes hiding in a warehouse near Guadalajara in December 2022, according to reporting by the Associated Press and the New York Post summarized by Court TV. He was transferred from Mexico to the United States in February 2025 under Mexico's national security law, with assistance from the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs. In July 2026 he pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington, D.C., to conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and 500 grams or more of methamphetamine for importation into the United States, and to using, carrying and possessing a firearm in furtherance of that conspiracy.
At sentencing, federal prosecutors asked for 30 years, pointing to his role managing CJNG drug proceeds, overseeing money laundering and supervising meth labs, the Associated Press reported. His attorneys asked for 20 years, saying he accepts full responsibility and noting time he had already spent in Mexican custody. In a letter to the court, he wrote that he was “deeply sorry” and that one of his greatest fears was dying far from his family. The judge imposed 270 months — between the two requests. At 67, he would be close to 90 when the sentence runs out.
The DEA's Special Operations Division Bilateral Investigations Unit in Los Angeles investigated the case. Chief Kaitlin Sahni of the Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Unit and Trial Attorneys Lernik Begian, Douglas Meisel and Maryann McGuire prosecuted it. The Justice Department says the case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by Executive Order 14159.
What happens next
The sentencing closes this phase of the case. None of the coverage reviewed points to a scheduled appeal or further hearing, and the Justice Department has signalled it intends to keep pursuing cartel leadership under the task force. For U.S. communities — including trucking corridors and border-state cities where CJNG-linked trafficking has been prosecuted for years — the case is presented by officials as a leadership conviction, not the end of the organization itself: both Duva and Cole framed it as one step in a wider campaign against the cartel's leaders, financiers and enablers.