The United States government has announced rewards totalling more than $102 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of eight senior leaders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of Mexico's most powerful and far-reaching criminal organisations. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the bounties at a Washington press conference on Wednesday, describing them as "a continuation of our efforts to eliminate cartels that have plagued" the United States "for far too long."

The largest single reward — $25 million, raised from a previous offer of $5 million — targets Juan Carlos González, known as "Pelón," who is believed to have taken control of the CJNG following the death of its longtime leader, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as "El Mencho." González, a dual Mexican and US citizen and El Mencho's stepson, was killed by the Mexican military in February during a raid on a hideout in Talpapa, a town in the western state of Jalisco. That operation, for which the US provided intelligence, left at least 73 people dead and triggered a wave of retaliatory violence across Mexico. Rewards for seven other CJNG leaders ranged from $2 million to $15 million. Wednesday's announcements were accompanied by newly unsealed criminal charges against five additional high-ranking cartel figures, including El Mencho's former son-in-law and his reported godson, both charged with drug trafficking and firearms offences. The US also imposed visa restrictions on 65 individuals accused of maintaining business or family ties to cartel members.

The CJNG, which is active in 21 of Mexico's 32 states and operates internationally, has been designated a "foreign terrorist organisation" by Washington — one of at least eight Mexican criminal networks to receive that label under the Trump administration. The designation has been used to justify increasingly aggressive measures, including a reported bombing campaign against suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific. "Narco-terrorist organisations like the CJNG are responsible for countless deaths to Americans," Blanche said, citing the trafficking of fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine into the US.

The announcements reflect the Trump administration's broader push to pressure Mexico and other Latin American governments into taking a more militarised approach to organised crime. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has cooperated on some fronts but has consistently warned that any foreign military operation on Mexican soil without federal approval would constitute a violation of national sovereignty. DEA head Terrance Cole signalled that Washington's campaign is far from over: "This is a fight against CJNG that we are just beginning, and we will not back down."

The scale of the rewards and the breadth of the accompanying measures underscore the extent to which cartel enforcement has become central to the Trump administration's national security agenda. Whether the bounties succeed in further fracturing the CJNG's leadership — already destabilised by El Mencho's death and subsequent internal infighting — remains to be seen, but US officials are clearly betting that financial incentives, combined with criminal charges and sanctions, will erode the organisation from within.