In potential blow to cartel, Mexico nabs brother of drug lord 'El Mencho'

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican soldiers arrested Abraham Oseguera, the brother of Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera who leads the hyper-violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), officials said on Monday, touting the capture as a major blow to organized crime.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador first announced Abraham Oseguera’s arrest at his morning press conference.

His sibling El Mencho is one of Mexico’s most-wanted fugitive drug lords.

Over the past five years, Lopez Obrador has sought a less confrontational approach to Mexico’s raging gangland violence, arguing that the priority should be placed on root causes of crime like poverty and joblessness versus direct attacks on the cartels.

Abraham Oseguera, also known as Don Rodo, was detained on Sunday by army soldiers working with National Guard police in Autlan de Navarro, Jalisco, according to a statement from the defense ministry released later on Monday.

The statement added that the detainee, found with a couple firearms plus ammunition cartridges, is considered one of the cartel’s main logistics and financial leaders, coordinating both drug trafficking and sales in the area where he was arrested.

He was later transferred by the country’s Air Force to Mexico City.

CJNG is widely viewed as the most powerful gang in Mexico alongside the Sinaloa Cartel, as both fight over lucrative smuggling routes into the United States as well as many other criminal rackets.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Boyle, Raul Cortes and Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico CityEditing by Kylie Madry and Matthew Lewis)