Jack Nicas

And on the way, we are told they died.

And that was it.

It was certainly bloody.

It was certainly violent.

But government officials actually told me that it was better than they expected.

Well, as we noted, El Mencho was an incredibly elusive figure because he was incredibly disciplined.

However, it appears that he got a little sloppy.

The Mexican government says that they identified a quote-unquote close associate of a woman who was one of El Mencho's lovers.

And they watched this man drop this woman off at the home where El Mencho was staying.

And at that point, they were somehow able to confirm that El Mencho was home.

Yes, it came down to his lover.

But it also appears that there was important information coming from the CIA.

There was no American boots on the ground.

This was a Mexican law enforcement operation.

But some of the intelligence that fed it came from the United States.

This was really a day of mayhem.

And it was one of the biggest shows of force and violence by a cartel in recent Mexican history.

And it actually showed the breadth of the organization that El Mencho had built because it wasn't just in Jalisco, but it was from coast to coast in at least 20 states across the nation.

There was, you know, cars on fire, blocked roads, banks on fire, supermarkets on fire.

And they also shootings, you know, there was at least 25 members of the National Guard who were killed as part of some of this mayhem on Sunday.