Revenge: Former Mexican federal agent who testified against drug lord's son has been shot dead | Law Enforcement Today

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - On Thursday, May 1st, authorities confirmed that a former Mexican federal agent who testified against the son of the country's most wanted drug lord, was shot dead in the central state of Morelos.

According to CBS News, Ivan Morales was a prosecution witness in the U.S. trial of Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez, a leader of Mexico's violent Jalisco New Generation cartel. Gonzalez was jailed for life by a Washington court in March. Morales and his wife were both shot dead Wednesday morning as they were traveling in their vehicle in the Texmixco area.

State prosecutors are investigating the crime and have said they are not ruling out revenge as a possible motive. Gonzalez's father, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, better known as "El Mencho," heads the Jalisco New Generation cartel and has a $15 million U.S. bounty on his head.

A decade ago, on May 1, 2025, Morales survived one of Mexico's bloodiest drug trafficking attacks when a military helicopter carrying 16 soldiers and two federal police officers was shot down in the western state of Jalisco. Nine people died, but Morales managed to escape from the burning wreckage. He, however, suffered severe burns that left part of his face disfigured.

The helicopter was flying in an ultimately unsuccessful mission to arrest "El Mencho." In September 2024, a federal jury convicted the younger Gonzalez, also known as "El Menchito," of conspiring to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine for U.S. importation and using a firearm in a drug conspiracy.

In September, former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, "El Menchito led the Jalisco Cartel's efforts to use murder, kidnapping, and torture to build the Cartel into a self-described 'empire' by manufacturing fentanyl and flooding the United States with massive quantities of lethal drugs."

Prosecutors said that Gonzalez ordered the killings of at least 100 people, personally shot and killed at least to people, and ordered subordinates to shoot down the Mexican military helicopter in 2015. The Jalisco New Generation cartel is one of the most powerful criminal gangs in Mexico and has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

The group has been accused of using fake job advertisements to lure new members and of torturing and killing recruits who resist. In March, a group of people looking for missing relatives found charred bones, shoes, and clothing at a suspected training ground for the cartel. 

On Thursday, May 1st, the Trump administration imposed economic sanctions on three Mexican nationals and two Mexican-based entities involved in a drug trafficking and fuel theft network linked to the Jalisco cartel. The new sanctions, which are being imposed on top member Cesar Morfin Morfin, also known as "Primito" and his brothers, target the group's fuel theft network.

In a news release, the Treasury said, "Primito's luxurious lifestyle has included ownership of exotic animals and dozens of luxury vehicles." U.S. officials claim that Primito is involved in the transportation and distribution of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana into the United States. 

The Treasury said that the network has resulted in tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue to the Mexican government and also funds the flow of illicit fentanyl into the United States.