UR MAG

By Phil Stewart and Laura Gottesdiener

Vehicle fires and roadblocks following security operation in Mexico

WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - A new U.S.-military-led task force specializing in intelligence collection on drug cartels played a role in the Mexican military raid on Sunday that killed the Mexican drug lord known as 'El Mencho,' a U.S. defense official told Reuters.

The Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel, which ‌involves multiple U.S. government agencies, was formally launched last month with the goal of mapping out networks of drug cartel members on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico ‌border, U.S. officials said.

The U.S. official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, did not offer further details on any information that the U.S.-military-led task force may have offered Mexican authorities. The official stressed the raid itself ​was a Mexican military operation.

A former U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity without referring specifically to the task force, said the U.S. compiled a detailed target package for El Mencho and provided it to the Mexican government for its operation.

This detailed dossier included information provided by U.S. law enforcement, U.S. intelligence, the former official said.

The former official added El Mencho was very high, if not at the top, of a list of U.S. targets in Mexico.

Mexican authorities killed drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, commonly known as 'El Mencho,' during an operation designed to capture him in the western state of ‌Jalisco. The operation set off a wave of violence, with torched ⁠cars and gunmen blocking highways in more than half a dozen states.

Mexico's defense ministry said U.S. authorities had provided "complementary information," but offered no details. A Mexican government source familiar with the operation said the Mexican government designed and executed it, and that no U.S. military personnel were physically involved.

An ⁠ex-police officer, Oseguera, 60, was the shadowy leader of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), an international criminal enterprise widely viewed as one of Mexico's most powerful. He managed to evade arrest for years despite a $15 million bounty from the U.S. for information leading to his arrest or capture.

The kingpin's killing notches a major victory for Mexico's war on drug cartels that are responsible for smuggling billions of ​dollars ​in cocaine and fentanyl into the U.S.

President Donald Trump's administration has waged a pressure campaign on Mexican President ​Claudia Sheinbaum's government to ramp up its crackdown on drug trafficking, including ‌U.S. threats to intervene directly in Mexico.

U.S. MAPPING OUT CARTELS

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There is little information publicly available about the U.S. Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel, or JITF-CC. Its website says its goal is to "identify, disrupt, and dismantle cartel operations posing a threat to the United States along the U.S.-Mexico border."

U.S. Brigadier General Maurizio Calabrese, who leads the task force, spoke to Reuters this month about how the U.S. military is channeling its experience battling groups like al Qaeda and Islamic State to map out cartel networks.

"The cartels operate differently than al Qaeda or ISIS, different motivations, which makes it even more important for us to identify entire networks so that we can disrupt and dismantle (them)," Calabrese told Reuters, using an acronym for Islamic State.

Calabrese noted that estimates vary ‌widely but said there were possibly a few hundred core cartel members "at the top."

"But then you have ​anywhere from 200,000 to 250,000 independent contractors that will help you move these drugs," Calabrese said.

Jack Riley, a former ​senior official at the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Trump's designation of Mexican cartels as ​terrorist organizations last year unlocked new kinds of U.S. military assistance.

He said that could be helpful when it comes to U.S. military intelligence, surveillance ‌and reconnaissance resources.

"Our surveillance capabilities are going to be probably unlimited, and ​that will really help with real-time stuff," Riley ​told Reuters.

"But these guys are extremely astute at being able to cover their tracks, cover who's in charge and where those people are."

A second U.S. defense official, speaking to Reuters ahead of the Mexican operation, said the new task force fit into a broader U.S. strategy to combat drug trafficking that has seen the U.S. military take ​increasing operational control of the border with Mexico.

It also includes now-regular ‌U.S. strikes on suspected drug boats in Caribbean and Pacific waters, the legality of which has been challenged by Democratic lawmakers and legal experts.

"The whole idea ​of creating an interagency effort is to not have stray voltage, is to bring it all together, synchronize it," the second official said of the task ​force.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington and Laura Gottesdiener in Monterrey, Mexico; Editing by David Gregorio)

After spending years evading authorities worldwide, apowerful Mexican cartel leaderwas killed during a military operation, Mexican officials announced on Sunday, Feb. 22.

Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, commonly known as "El Mencho," rose through the ranks and launched a deadly coup to become the leader of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). The criminal enterprise rapidly grew into a continent-spanning empire that rivaled its former allies in the Sinaloa Cartel, run by kingpinJoaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is serving life in prison.

In 2024, the U.S. Department of State offered a $15 million reward for information leading to Oseguera's arrest and/or conviction. After reports of his death surfaced, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau described "El Mencho" in asocial media postas "one of the bloodiest and most ruthless drug kingpins."

Here's what to know about the Mexican drug lord:

What was his real name?

He was bornRubén Oseguera Cervanteson July 17, 1966, in the small farming city of Aguililla in the western state of Michoacán, according toThe Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network. He later adopted the name Nemesio, some say to honor his godfather. It was shortened to "El Mencho" and has no other known meaning.

Why was 'El Mencho' so dangerous?

A powerful drug kingpin with 5,000 members spread across every continent except Antarctica, Oseguera's brutal cartel is blamed for kidnappings, torture, murders, cannibalism, and the spread of fentanyl — which surpassed heroin as America's deadliest illicit drug.

"More recently, CJNG operatives, allegedly under Oseguera Cervantes' direction, were involved in assassination attempts of Mexican government officials," the State Department said in December 2024.

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How did 'El Mencho' rise to power?

Unlike some cartel leaders who inherited leadership positions from family dynasties, his parents were farm workers who carved out a living in Aguililla, a city of fewer than 20,000 people in Michoacán, known as the world's avocado capital. Oseguera dropped out of school after the sixth grade to pick avocados.

"El Mencho" eventually made his way to Tijuana, the prominent border town for American tourists and feuding Mexican cartels. There, he grew his drug-smuggling business in San Diego. Court and prison records show he has entered the United States at least three times and was repeatedly deported.

After being ordered to leave the area by another organization, "El Mencho" joined the police force in Tomatlán, a small city south of Puerto Vallarta in the western state of Jalisco.

Eventually, Oseguera returned to his native Michoacán, where he joined the Milenio Cartel, an entrenched criminal organization operating since at least the early 1990s. Milenio eventually tapped "El Mencho," a skilledsicario— or assassin — to lead one of its cells in Guadalajara as a cartel lieutenant.

As Oseguera rose through the ranks of Milenio, he expected to be rewarded with the top position. But when some of the cartel's leaders were arrested or killed in 2008 and 2009, "El Mencho" wasn't promoted.

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Incensed, Oseguera plotted revenge in 2009 and 2010 with others who were unhappy with Milenio's new leadership and spearheaded a deadly coup. He emerged victorious in early 2011, and his new cartel was christened the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación.

What did 'El Mencho' control?

Oseguera controlled several key drug trafficking routes and hubs in Mexico and gave orders to the "capo," or plaza boss, similar to a mafia lieutenant.

His cartel dominates much of Guadalajara and controls the outskirts of Jalisco, as well as other states such as Colima and Michoacán. CJNG has spread to most of Mexico's 32 states, with an increasing presence in Tijuana and Mexico City.

As the boss, "El Mencho" set thepiso, or tax, that business owners and independent drug traffickers had to pay the capos for protection. Oseguera also assumed control of corrupt police officers and politicians.

"El Mencho's Jalisco New Generation Cartel was one of the biggest buyers of politicians and political campaigns, which has given it an enormous social base," Edgardo Buscaglia, an organized crime expert at Columbia University, toldReuters.

What was 'El Mencho' charged with in the United States?

Oseguera was the lead defendant in a federal indictment returned in the District of Columbia in 2017, accusing him of leading a continuing criminal enterprise. He was also charged with conspiring to send large amounts of drugs into the United States and using firearms during these drug trafficking crimes.

Oseguera also faced meth trafficking charges from a 2013 federal indictment in Gulfport, Mississippi.

'That level of violence is terrifying':Mexican cartel targets tranquil Puget Sound city

How did 'El Mencho' avoid capture for so long?

Despite a $15 million bounty, Oseguera stayed on the move for years and dodged manhunts that began within a year of his rise to power in 2011. He was rarely seen, staying in remote compounds that made it harder for police to breach, and didn't do drugs or drink alcohol to avoid slip-ups, the Courier Journal reported in 2019.

U.S. drug agents and Mexican authorities teamed to root out El Mencho's hiding spots at least three times. Police raided his secret compounds in 2012 and 2018, but he escaped, the newspaper reported.

According to the Courier Journal, the Mexican military also learned Oseguera's hiding spot and headed to get him in two military helicopters in May 2015. But his menshot down one of the helicopterswith a Russian-made rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:'El Mencho' killed in Jalisco, Mexico. Who was the cartel leader?

By Parisa Hafezi

DUBAI, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Iran has indicated it is prepared to make concessions on its nuclear programme in talks with the U.S. in return for the lifting of sanctions and recognition of its right to enrich uranium, as it seeks to avert a U.S. attack.

Both sides remain sharply divided -- even over the scope and sequencing of relief from crippling U.S. sanctions -- following ‌two rounds of talks, a senior Iranian official told Reuters.

However, Reuters is reporting for the first time that Iran is offering fresh concessions since their talks ended last week, when the sides appeared far ‌apart and heading closer to military conflict. Analysts say the move suggests Tehran is trying to keep diplomacy alive and stave off a major U.S. strike.

The official said Tehran would seriously consider a combination of sending half of its most highly enriched uranium abroad, diluting the rest ​and taking part in creating a regional enrichment consortium - an idea periodically raised in years of Iran-linked diplomacy.

Iran would do this in return for U.S. recognition of Iran's right to "peaceful nuclear enrichment" under a deal that would also include lifting economic sanctions, the official said.

In addition, Iran has offered openings for U.S. companies to participate as contractors in Iran's large oil and gas industries, the official said, in negotiations to resolve decades of dispute over Tehran's nuclear activities.

"Within the economic package under negotiation, the United States has also been offered opportunities for serious investment and tangible economic interests in Iran's oil industry," the official said.

The White House did not respond immediately to queries on the issue.

Washington views enrichment inside Iran as a potential ‌pathway to nuclear weapons. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and wants its right to ⁠enrich uranium to be recognised.

Iran and the United States resumed negotiations earlier this month as the U.S. builds up its military capability in the Middle East. Iran has threatened to strike U.S. bases in the region if it is attacked.

The Iranian official said the most recent discussions underscored the gap between the two sides, but stressed that "the possibility of reaching ⁠an interim agreement exists" as negotiations continue.

IRAN SEEKS 'LOGICAL TIMETABLE' FOR LIFTING SANCTIONS

"The last round of talks showed that U.S. ideas regarding the scope and mechanism of sanctions relief differ from Iran's demands. Both sides need to reach a logical timetable for lifting sanctions," the official said.

"This roadmap must be reasonable and based on mutual interests."

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday he expects to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff in Geneva on Thursday, adding there is still "a good chance" of ​a ​diplomatic solution.

Araqchi said on Friday that he expected to have a draft counterproposal ready within days, while Trump said he was considering ​limited military strikes.

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Citing officials on both sides and diplomats across the Gulf and Europe, ‌Reuters reported on Friday that Tehran and Washington are sliding rapidly towards military conflict as hopes fade for a diplomatic settlement.

On Sunday, Witkoff said the president was curious as to why Iran has not yet "capitulated" and agreed to curb its nuclear programme.

"Why, under this pressure, with the amount of seapower and naval power over there, why haven't they come to us and said, 'We profess we don't want a weapon, so here's what we're prepared to do'? And yet it's sort of hard to get them to that place," Witkoff said on Fox News.

READINESS TO COMPROMISE ON NUCLEAR WORK

Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Iran's leadership is seeking to buy time via the talks.

"Iran will use that time for various reasons, including to avoid a strike and to harden nuclear, missile, and military facilities," he said.

While rejecting a U.S. demand for "zero enrichment" - a major sticking point in ‌past negotiations - Tehran has signalled its readiness to compromise on its nuclear work.

Washington has also demanded that Iran relinquish its stockpile ​of highly enriched uranium (HEU). The International Atomic Energy Agency last year estimated that stockpile at more than 440 kg of uranium enriched to ​up to 60% fissile purity, a small step away from the 90% that is considered weapons grade.

Ali Larijani, ​a close adviser to Iran's supreme leader, told Al Jazeera TV that Iran was ready to allow extensive IAEA monitoring to prove it is not seeking nuclear weapons.

The agency has ‌been calling on Iran for months to allow for inspection of three nuclear sites that ​were struck by the U.S. in June last year at ​the close of a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign. Since then, Tehran has said its uranium enrichment work has stopped.

Satellite images show that Iran has advanced work at a location reportedly bombed by Israel last year, recently building a concrete shield over a new facility at a sensitive military site and covering it in soil, experts say.

BENEFITS FOR BOTH SIDES

Among U.S. demands are restrictions on Tehran's long-range ballistic missiles and an end ​to its support for regional proxy groups.

Iran has flatly rejected discussing its missiles, while ‌sources have told Reuters, without elaborating, that "the issue of regional proxies is not a red line for Tehran".

Iranian authorities have said that a diplomatic solution would provide economic benefits for both Tehran ​and Washington.

The Iranian official said Tehran would not hand over control of its oil and mineral resources.

"Ultimately, the U.S. can be an economic partner for Iran, nothing more. American companies can always participate ​as contractors in Iran's oil and gas fields."

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi, Editing by Alex Richardson, Ros Russell, William Maclean)

(Fixes formatting of advisory line; adds detail and quote from PM statement in paragraphs 3-7)

COPENHAGEN, Feb 22 (Reuters) - ‌Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said on Sunday "no ‌thanks" to U.S. President Donald Trump's idea of sending a hospital ship ​to Greenland, a territory that Trump has repeatedly said he wishes to take over.

Trump said on Saturday on social media he was working with Louisiana Governor and special envoy to Greenland, ‌Jeff Landry, to send ⁠a hospital boat to Greenland.

"President Trump's idea of sending an American hospital ship here to Greenland ⁠has been noted. But we have a public healthcare system where treatment is free for citizens. It is a deliberate choice," ​Nielsen ​said in a post on ​Facebook.

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Nielsen said Greenland remained open ‌to dialogue and cooperation, also with the U.S.

"But talk to us instead of just making more or less random outbursts on social media," he said.

Greenland, Denmark and the U.S. late last month launched diplomatic talks to resolve the crisis between ‌the parties, following months of tension ​within the NATO defence alliance over ​Trump's threats against ​the Arctic territory.

Trump's post on the ship came ‌hours after Denmark's Joint Arctic ​Command said it ​had evacuated a crew member who required urgent medical treatment from a U.S. submarine in Greenlandic waters, seven ​nautical miles outside ‌of Greenland's capital, Nuuk. It was unclear if the ​post had any connection to the evacuation.

(Reporting by Stine ​Jacobsen, editing by Louise Rasmussen)

Arab states have reacted with fury afterU.S. Ambassador to IsraelMike Huckabee suggested Israel has a biblical right to take over large swaths of the Middle East.

"It would be fine if they took it all, but I don't think that's what we're talking about here today," Huckabee toldpodcaster Tucker Carlsonduring an interview posted on YouTube on Friday, as the two discussed his Christian Zionist beliefs and interpretations of the Old Testament regarding land promised to Abraham and his descendants, stretching across multiple modern-day countries.

Huckabee addedthat this was not on the table, as "they're not asking to take all that." Asked if it would be fine for Israel to take over countries including Syria and Lebanon, he replied: "That's really not exactly what I'm trying to say."

His comments drew swift condemnation from across the region.

A joint statement from the foreign ministries of over a dozen Arab and Muslim nations,including U.S. allies Qatarand Saudi Arabia, expressed their "strong condemnation and profound concern" regarding Huckabee's comments, affirming their "categorical rejection of such dangerous and inflammatory remarks."

"These statements directly contradict the vision put forward by U.S. President Donald J. Trump, as well as the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict," the statement said.

The League of Arab States, which includes all Arab states in the Middle East and North Africa, called his comments "extremist and lacking any sound basis" in a statement posted on X.

Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry described Huckabee's comments as "extremist rhetoric" and called for the State Department to clarify its position on them, while Egypt described the comments as a "flagrant breach" of international law.

Iran warned the remarks could further "embolden" Israel in its "illegal measures against Palestinians as well as its constant aggression against the nations of the region."

Huckabee has since complained that a viral clip from the interview did not give the full context of their two-hour exchange, which was posted in full by Carlson on X and YouTube.

The ambassador wrote on X that they had had a "very twisty and frankly confusing discussion about the meaning of Zionism," adding that he had been asked "as a former Baptist minister about the 'theology' of Christian Zionism."

"He kept dragging it to discussions about other topics, literally other countries, things that have nothing to do with theology and certainly not with Israel, Zionism, or anything else," he added.

In the wide-ranging interview, Carlson had asked Huckabee about a Bible verse in which God promises Abraham that his descendants will receive land "from the wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates — the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."

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Carlson, who has increasingly questioned U.S. support for Israel, said that this area would include "basically the entire Middle East," including parts of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

"I'm not sure it would go that far," Huckabee said, "but it would be a big piece of land."

He added: "They're not trying to take over Jordan, take over Syria, take over Iraq, or anywhere else, but they do want to protect their people."

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a longtime proponent of Israeli expansion in the Middle East, appeared to welcome the remarks. He posted on X Saturday: "I (heart) Huckabee."

Huckabee, a devout Christian and outspoken Zionist, has frequently drawn on the Bible when discussing the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, but the latest remarks go a step beyond that in seemingly referring to a much larger hypothetical expansion of the Israeli state.

Inan interview with NBC News in September, he said the U.S. and Israel shared a value system that "is rooted deeply in a biblical understanding of a worldview."

Prior to his appointment as envoy, he was outspoken about his support for the idea that Israel should annex the occupied West Bank and incorporate its Palestinian population, a position that would represent a reversal of decades of U.S. policy.

He has continued to back the idea that the West Bank should be referred to by its biblical name of "Judea and Samaria," a term that he uses and that right-wing Israeli and American politicians and activists have failed to get the U.S. government to formally adopt.

Huckabee called the terminology "historically accurate" and said it "has roots in a 3,800-year history."

The ambassador's interview with Carlson came a week after Israel's Security Cabinet approved measures to tighten the country'scontrol over the West Bankand make it easier for Jewish settlers to buy land there, a move that also attracted widespread statements of concern from Western governments and condemnation from throughout the Middle East.

In Hebron, an ancient community in the West Bank that has Jewish settlements in the heart of the city, the local Palestinian governorate was stripped of planning and building authority, which will instead be controlled by Israeli officials.

The moves were roundly condemned by Palestinians, who see the West Bank as vital for a future independent state. To this day, the international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.

Neither the White House nor the State Department have issued statements about the new measures.