A man known as “El Tony Montana” who allegedly oversaw the activities of one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent cartels has been arrested.

Antonio Oseguera – whose alias is an apparent reference to the 1983 gangster film Scarface – is the brother of Mexico‘s most-wanted drug cartel boss, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera.

Mexico’s defence department said Antonio Oseguera had several weapons and a package potentially containing cocaine on him when the army tracked him down in a suburb of Guadalajara, the capital of the western state of Jalisco.

They said he oversaw violent actions, bought weapons, trafficked drugs and laundered money for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, also known as CJNG or the Jalisco cartel.

Mexico’s government said the arrest “represents a forceful blow to one of the criminal organisations in the country”.

The Jalisco cartel is arguably Mexico’s most powerful and violent. It made its reputation with brazen attacks on Mexico’s security forces, including a 2020 assassination attempt on Mexico City’s police chief that wounded him and killed three other people.

In 2015, cartel gunmen shot down a Mexican military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade.

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The cartel’s main business is trafficking drugs to the United States, especially methamphetamine and fentanyl.

In 2018, a $10m bounty was placed on El Mencho’s head by US authorities.

He is one of the few long-term cartel leaders in Mexico to have evaded capture while leading the gang’s continent-spanning empire.

Authorities previously arrested El Mencho’s wife, alleging she was involved in the cartel’s illegal activities.

Antonio Oseguera is on a Treasury Department sanctions list for his ties to the cartel. However, it was not immediately clear if there is a US warrant of extradition request for him.

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