Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “Tony Montana” and identified as the brother of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho,” pleaded guilty this Friday in a United States federal court.
His change of plea from “not guilty” to “guilty” comes after more than a year of negotiations between the defense and the Prosecutor's Office.
Previously, in a joint application filed with the Court, both parties reported that they had reached a plea agreement and requested additional time to complete the corresponding documentation before formalizing the change of plea.
According to court documents, Antonio Oseguera faces two federal charges: conspiracy to traffic cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States from January 1998 to December 2022, and possession of firearms to facilitate a drug trafficking crime during that same period.
By pleading guilty to at least one of the two charges against him, Oseguera Cervantes avoids the risk of being sentenced to life imprisonment, as his nephew Rubén Oseguera González is currently doing.
The US authorities point to him as the main financial and logistical operator of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which is why he represented a key piece within the hierarchical structure of the criminal group that was led by his brother.
Mexican authorities arrested him in December 2022 during an operation in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Jalisco.
Although he spent almost three years fighting his extradition, Oseguera Cervantes was handed over to the United States Government on February 27, 2025, along with 29 other alleged members of organized crime, including drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero, to face different criminal proceedings related to drug trafficking.
