The criminal record of a leader of Mexico’s Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) convicted last month reveals that the criminal organization had Iranian rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez (alias “El Menchito”) was convicted in late September by a jury in Washington DC of international drug trafficking and firearms offenses. Oseguera is the son of fugitive CJNG leader Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes (“El Mencho”).

According to evidence presented at trial, from 2012 to 2015, Oseguera Gonzalez oversaw the production of more than 1.5 million kilos of methamphetamine (crystal meth) in Mexico, as well as the distribution of more than 22,500 kilos of cocaine. He also directed the CJNG’s use of extreme violence.

Like several other drug cartels, the CJNG operates with a separate violent wing, which Oseguera called his “special forces.” The CJNG, also known on the streets of Mexico as Cuatro Letras (Four Letters), distinguishes itself, like the former “Zetas” of, for example, the Sinaloa cartel, by a more violent method of working, both against the population and against rivals and the government.