By Sean Campbell and Topher McDougal
The Conversation, May 23, 2025
The Mexican security forces tracking Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes – the leader of a deadly drug cartel that has been a top driver of violence in Mexico and narcotic addiction in America – thought they finally had him cornered on May 1, 2015. Four helicopters carrying an arrest team whirled over these mountains near Mexico’s southwestern coast toward Cervantes’ compound in the town of Villa Purificación, the heart of the infamous Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel.
As the lead Super Cougar helicopter pulled within range, bullets from a truck-mounted, military-grade machine gun on the ground struck the engine, forcing an emergency landing. Before it reached the ground, the massive helicopter was also hit by a pair of rocket-powered grenades. Four soldiers from Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense were killed in the crash. Three more soldiers were killed in the firefight that followed, and another 12 were injured.
The engagement was the first known incident of a cartel successfully shooting down a military aircraft in Mexico. The cartel’s retaliation for the attempted arrest was swift and brutal – and aimed at creating chaos. It hijacked fire trucks and buses and set them ablaze on roadways to create blockades. It set fire to banks, gasoline stations and private businesses. In total, 25 municipalities reported severe acts of narco-terrorism across the Mexican states of Jalisco, Michoacan, Nayarit and Guanajuato. There were four major shootouts in the surrounding areas that day.
The distractions worked. Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho,” escaped.
The Browning machine gun that took down the helicopter was eventually traced back to a legal firearm purchase in Oregon made by a U.S. citizen. And a Barrett .50-caliber rifle also used in the ambush was traced back to a sale in a U.S. gun shop in Texas 4½ years before.
These are far from the only military grade weapons trafficked into Mexico from the U.S. Each year, tens of thousands of them flow across the border, aided by loose standards for firearm dealers and gun laws that favor illicit sales. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – the agency known as ATF tasked with regulating the industry – is beset by criticism on the left and right for not doing more to regulate an increasing number of guns.
Related story: Gun trafficking from the U.S. to Mexico: The drug connection
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Related story: Here’s how we figured the number of guns illegally trafficked from the U.S. across the border to Mexico
How trafficked American guns fuel Mexico’s cartel violence – podcast
