EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The Mexican government is confirming the arrest of the brother of Jalisco New Generation Cartel kingpin Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, a.k.a. “El Mencho.”

Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, a.k.a. “Tony Montana,” was arrested on Tuesday in a suburban Guadalajara, Mexico, home from where he allegedly supervised the cartel’s financial and logistical operations, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement. Mexican officials on Wednesday took Oseguera to the offices of the Federal Prosecutor for Organized Crimes (FEMDO) to make a statement, Mexican media reported.

The arrest of Mencho’s brother represents a “devastating blow” against an international criminal organization that has become one of Mexico’s principal instigators of violence, the ministry said.

Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, a.k.a. “Tony Montana,” left, and Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, a.k.a. “El Mencho.” (Courtesy government of Mexico)

Oseguera was allegedly caught illegally in possession of a rifle, six guns and ammunition. His arrest follows last Friday’s abduction in Jalisco of Col. Jose Isidro Grimaldo Munoz, an army officer in charge of an organized crime task force. It also comes less than a month after a general serving in Mexico’s National Guard, Jose Urzua Padilla, was killed in a shootout with criminals. the government has linked the Jalisco cartel to both attacks.

The arrest of Oseguera’s brother “has to do with the attacks on military leaders. The assassination of the National Guard coordinator and the abduction of Col. Jose Isidro Grimaldo are an attack against public safety and this is the government’s response,” Eduardo Guerrero Gutierrez, director of Lantia Intelligence in Mexico City, told a Mexican web news portal.

The expert said the arrest could lead to a direct confrontation between the government and the cartel — something Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has tried to avoid during his tenure.

“Tony Montana” becomes the latest close relative of the Jalisco cartel’s top boss to be apprehended in Mexico or the United States.

Nemesio Oseguera’s daughter Jessica Johanna Oseguera Gonzalez, 35, last year pleaded guilty in the U.S. to willfully violating the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designations Act. In 2020, the Mexican government extradited to the United States Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez – the son of Nemesio Oseguera – on drug trafficking charges.