The daughter of Mencho: how she defended herself after her capture in the US and what will happen to her three weeks after her freedom

Jessica Johanna Oseguera González, daughter of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), knew that she was in the crosshairs of US authorities, she was warned, but the day she attended her brother's hearing she learned of the accusation against her; although she held a strong defense for a year, she finally pleaded guilty for collaborating with his father's criminal group and will be released from prison in three weeks.

La Negra, as she is nicknamed, left her two children in Guadalajara in the care of her mother, Rosalinda González Valencia. He traveled to California and from there flew to Washington DC, where Rubén Oseguera González, el Menchito, appeared, who is currently following the judicial process for drug trafficking when he was identified as one of the leaders of the CJNG.

One morning before she was arrested she went to receive the ash cross that marks the beginning of Lent, because according to her family and friends, she is very religious. However, that February 26, 2020, a kind of way of the cross began when it fell into the hands of justice and faced the consequences of helping the CJNG through five companies sanctioned by the Department of the Treasury.

The fall of the exemplary daughter

According to court files consulted by Infobae Mexico, on the day she was arrested she was wearing a Rolex watch, Louis Vuitton coat and a Hermes bag. He also carried a substantial amount of cash. On her phone she only had three contacts, she didn't go alone and would stay in a hotel in the US capital. She was eventually arrested as she entered the District Court of Columbia, before showing her support for Menchito.

By that time, Jessica Johanna Oseguera González was already an independent mother, according to her testimonies. The more than 20 letters sent to the court to appeal for her release portrayed her as a kind woman, loved by nieces, aunts and friends; appreciated by clients, as well as a couple of religious leaders from Jalisco.

They highlighted the moments when he supported people in vulnerable situations, as well as the example for his cousins and nieces. The same could give tamales and blankets in hospitals as they could lead a collection to give bicycles and toys to children in the neighborhood on a Christmas or buy clothes and shoes to children on the street. Or so their acquaintances claimed.

Passionate about football and boxing player, she grew up between California, Michoacán and Guadalajara, where she graduated in Marketing from the private university of the Western Institute of Technology and Higher Education in 2009. She became pregnant while studying, since she was 17 years old she had a relationship with Julio Alberto Castillo Rodríguez, another of those placed as leaders of the CJNG.

But all that past as a student of good grades was relegated when he headed entities that benefited the cartel led by his father, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, el Mencho. The defendant said she hadn't seen the kingpin since 1997, but US prosecutors had a witness who claimed to have found them together in meetings, including keeping accounting records for drug debts in 2011 and 2013.

Documents consulted by Infobae Mexico indicate that, had the trial proceeded, the informant would have given details of the appointment with Jessica Johanna and her father on a ranch. As well as alleged orders from Mencho for his daughter to review records and thus confront a member of the CJNG who was suspected of robbery from the criminal organization.

But the defense responded that admitting such intervention would only tarnish the defendant's reputation on charges that were not formally presented or sustained beyond, since the jury would only be influenced by a context of violence and drug trafficking. Hence, the judge excluded the evidence and left the possibility open only in response to possible manifestations by the person involved.

The investigations

The court record examined by this medium indicates that the woman was detected on the radar of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in November 2014. From then on, investigations began with the support of the extinct Federal Police and the agency's office in Guadalajara. A year later, on September 1, 2015, data were obtained on businesses run by the daughter of Mencho.

She frequently visited her relatives in California, where she was born and spent part of her childhood until her parents separated due to the deportation to Mexico of Oseguera Cervantes, who was imprisoned in the United States for dealing drugs. At the age of 15 he decided to stay in Jalisco with his mother and siblings, despite dual citizenship. From 2005 to February 2020, he entered the United States at least 33 times.

In 2018 he went on a ski trip in the Colorado Vail and carried $10,000 in cash with him. It was not hidden from the authorities and always followed the protocols of the border crossing. But in 2019, when she went with her family and her son's soccer tournament in Los Angeles, she was intercepted by DEA agents.

In the motions, she argued that officers intimidated her in front of her little ones on two separate occasions and asked to interview her under alleged threats of imprisonment. Although it was agreed that they could address it elsewhere, it did not materialize.

She provided a telephone number, but they lost contact with her, as she refused to indicate data that there is no basis to sustain that she possessed, according to her lawyers. Those who intercepted her, he presumed, were probably investigating the case of Menchito, who was already detained in Mexico and was waiting to be extradited to the District of Columbia.

According to the file, they sought her to cooperate to provide information and at the same time, they personally notified her that she was involved in sanctions by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) by entities on the list of Specially Designated Nationals of the so-called Kingpin Act.

As she accepted in March last year, after her time at ITESO she formed, incorporated, registered, managed and led companies that ended up benefiting the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel. It is a business network related to vacation rentals, sushi restaurants, a brand of tequila and agricultural services.

The United States authorities published the information in September 2015. They visited to warn relatives of Mencho in the US and relatives of his brother-in-law, Abigael González Valencia. OFAC designated CJNG as its leaders and allies in the Cuinis, as well as businesses that served them in their criminal activities: J&P Advertising; JJGON; Cabañas las Flores; Mizu Sushi Lounge of Operadora los Famosos, later Kenzo Sushi; as well as Tequila Onze Black.

They also sent emails to accounts provided by Jessica Johanna Oseguera Gonzalez, including a letter to addresses located in credit records and where she requested that Nike sneakers be sent to her in California, but the notification was returned. They also warned the accused's cousins, aunts and uncles, as well as the electronic directives of microenterprises that provided financial support to the four-letter cartel.

Since 2009 and for a decade she participated as co-owner, owner or manager of commercial entities. J&P Advertising, Tequila Onze Black and Kenzo Sushi accounts are still located on social networks; according to Infobae México verifications, they follow each other on Twitter. In addition, a couple of trademark registrations have not yet expired under the name of the holder at the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI).

When DEA agents intercepted her, those elements were already available to request an arrest warrant. It became known that he changed the name, address and disbanded part of the companies as an attempt to evade OFAC sanctions. It is not credible that she was not aware, as the case was widely disseminated in the press. In any case, he remained in charge of the entities included in the US blacklist.

Strong defense of the daughter of Mencho

Following his arrest, he appeared before federal judge Robin M. Meriweather in the District of Columbia. The five-count indictment remained sealed and was filed before the Grand Jury since December 6, 2019. He could not support his brother as a family member in court on the same day, now it remained for him to defend himself.

At his initial hearing he pleaded not guilty and was not granted bail. The prosecutor ordered that the Mexican Embassy be informed. They requested that she be held as a serious risk of flight because she had access to resources to evade justice.

Prosecutors alleged a strong case and extensive investigations led by the DEA. To do so, they would present witnesses, business records, social media, websites and official notices of violations of the Kingpin Act. If he returned to Mexico, they argued, the CJNG and the Cuinis would ensure that he remained free by exercising a high degree of corrupt control over several municipalities and entities in the country.

From the start, he asked the judge to present witnesses and evidence. He argued that due process was violated, since he lacked the knowledge of what he was facing.

She then revealed, through her lawyers, that she had already faced a similar process in Mexico, that she was watched and questioned half a year earlier, when she was in California. That is why I wanted to confront those who approached it at the time.

By March 2, 2020, custody was requested to remain in the hands of the US Attorney General's Office. The defendant wanted to continue her trial in freedom, since she had no criminal record and was a mother in the service of a four-year-old daughter and her 12-year-old son.

When she was charged in 2017 with the same charges and implications, an arrest warrant was issued which she managed to evade with a protection. The decision was appealed, but a court reaffirmed that there was no evidence to stop it in a process supported by the DEA.

He suggested that if the evidence against her was already strong, they might as well arrest her earlier. The lawyer added that it was all revenge, because they failed to prosecute her on Mexican soil and refused to give information.

They appealed that it was not a risk to the community and Judge Meriweather granted the possibility of him being released with the payment of a guaranteed property deposit of $500,000, in addition to GPS monitoring and house detention. He won the first round.

The US prosecutor's office appealed and said that to that date they had designated 100 commercial entities linked to the CJNG and the Cuinis. They reiterated notifications and that it was not yet necessary to submit persons, but they could grant statements. The context, weight of evidence, family ties and the danger of letting it go had to be understood.

This was assessed by the chief judge, Beryl A. Howell, who reversed his predecessor's decision to maintain pretrial detention. The Bailiffs Service intervened to take over custody in a separate prison and the speedy trial was scheduled.

The government assessed that the half-million-dollar collateral property was actually priced at $109,889 and was signed by an aunt from Oseguera González. Later it became known that he offered to rent an apartment in Columbia with a monthly cost of more than 3 thousand dollars. They insisted that their danger was not alleged to the community, but the resources to escape.

From there, a sum of appeals, requests, responses and support for the approaches were triggered. On March 19, he introduced a strategy that more inmates would use to free prison in the face of the COVID-19 problem.

His defense described the spread of the pandemic among prisoners, as well as the positive case of a DC sheriff, the 67 prisoners in quarantine, 21,000 infections and 267 deaths across the United States.

But the court could not reconsider a preliminary matter beyond its powers and no substantive cases were filed. Nor did they explain conditions that made it prone to contagion and, in any case, how it would be protected if it were released in an exposed community. In addition, measures had been taken in prison. The motion was therefore denied.

A little more than a week later, the US government indicated that it would designate the case as complex. The lawyers remarked that the evidence was weak in terms of notifications and the blocking notice had been before his appointment to OFAC and now they changed their strategy to exclude time with classified information, in addition to documents that would be translated from Spanish, when they first raised less than 300 pages.

The wiretaps, recently received from the Mexican government, would be evaluated and would produce more than 47,000 pages. They had anticipated that they were expecting results from the mutual legal assistance agreement and, having this, the case gained another relevance that would include more people, a whole diplomatic process would come and, on top of that, the pandemic.

Everything was a surprise for the defense, as the interrogations would be short. For the defendant, the risk of COVID-19 was minimized and then it was important. It had also been anticipated that the request to Mexico would be limited and specific.

There were submissions of deadlines, schedules for delivering discoveries, search states, and the speedy trial was planned until December 2020. It was accepted that more tests would arrive with an officer in charge of supervising them, provided that they were informed to enlist them.

Other agencies were contacted and Oseguera González requested reports on the punishment to which she would be condemned of being guilty. He insisted that he had to face the trial outside the prison.

By July 13, he filed the first of his motions to dismiss all five charges due to lack of specificity. He indicated that the accusations were ascribed to ambiguities, generalities and possible interpretations.

Then came more resources to eliminate charges of due process violations due to lack of formal notices about violations of the Kingpin Act. He also alleged surpluses of accusation, duplicity and vagueness, in addition to excluding witnesses before and during the trial because, he assumed, they were interviewed jointly.

He also asked to have evidence to be able to suppress them, such as searches, intervened communications, monitoring or recorded statements. That day he sent a dozen requests.

Prosecutors reversed and added the link with a real estate company as intrinsic evidence that was sanctioned a month earlier. They were more specific in what was based on each of the accusations. They revealed the defendant's registration and management of a website for BRIC Inmobiliaria, a real estate company based in Jalisco.

In addition, they indicated that Oseguera González owned half of J&P Advertising; he owned 20% of JJGON; the Flores Cabañas resort was renamed La Loma; Mizu Sushi Lounge was renamed Kenzo Sushi, but it did not change its logo, phone number, chefs, or menu.

The first two entities were dissolved after being designated by OFAC. While the web hosting company reported on sanctions from the Treasury Department and, by identifying BRIC Inmobiliaria with a 26-minute call from Mencho's daughter's phone, they excluded her from keeping the others with the same online service.

After that, the domain registrations were deactivated again and for the rest of the companies they were banned. Finally, they argued that the government should not specify, but it was enough to warn that their conduct was illegal. He still pleaded not guilty, while his motions were again denied.

More resources came to dismiss charges because the crimes were not in the US and she had to appear in California, as she was secured there by immigration authorities, who should already be aware of the arrest warrant. That is why they presumed coordination for it to fall in Columbia. The DEA agents responded that they were not notified, but hours after admission.

The interception was added to a call from one of the administrators of the sanctioned business and as of September 2, 2020 there were 46,000 pages of discoveries accumulated. If he was associated with the CJNG, it was to give context to the jury, according to prosecutors. She again asked for identification of witnesses and other motions were denied at the end of October.

By November 3, 2020, preliminary versions were introduced that pointed to her in direct links with the organization led by her father. In one of the cabins of the designated entity he would have met to receive drug records and discuss it with other drug traffickers, according to the informant.

The lawyers said that their representative traveled to the US eight times after the companies were blacklisted and there was no arrest, but the prosecution intensified in the face of her refusal to cooperate. The authorities then received more than 100 recorded calls.

It was even acknowledged that US embassy personnel had dined at Kenzo Sushi and made a purchase of 1,390 pesos on November 7, 2016. The latter wanted to be used as a link with companies banned by agents of the same government.

But it was alleged that this place had changed its name after its first designation and was not yet recognized with the new identity. In addition, the allegations against the owner were more serious and there was no support to identify that the customers were US employees.

The trial was rescheduled to December 21, as 11 witnesses were expected to travel from outside Washington DC; while the defense wanted to call two federal agents. The latter pointed out that they did not want additional evidence, since they tried to link their representative directly to drug trafficking, of which she was not accused and could be misinterpreted by the jury by defaming her.

Jessica Johanna Oseguera González said that the process would have to be resolved as soon as possible. Everything, accompanied by the fact that the government rushed to produce its discoveries so that they could be analyzed. As of November 12, there were more than 60,000 pages of evidence. Then, dates for meetings with CJNG narcos were reinforced for 2011 and 2014.

The case was extended until March 2021, there was yet another motion to dismiss charges, other petitions were denied and the introduction of BRIC Inmobiliaria was admitted. In turn, the judge was of the opinion that there was no revenge, the DEA agents were careful and sought better results when asking for collaboration.

With the arrival of lawyer Yasmin Perez Ortiz in the defense, everything changed. It was one year after detention, recourse continued to exclude evidence prior to trial and, on the other hand, required that statements from a confidential informant be admitted. She reiterated that there should be no talk of cartels, since she was not accused of drugs or money laundering.

Surprisingly, for March 9 of last year, it was revealed that the trial date would be annulled and, instead, a guilty plea hearing would be scheduled. They were less than two weeks away from appearing.

Information in development...