How the CJNG Saved the US Cocaine Market

El Mencho, one of Mexico's wiliest kingpins, identified early the opportunity to pivot back to cocaine. He built a cocaine supply chain from Colombia to Chicago.

The Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), led by Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, may now be the strongest cartel in Mexico, eclipsing the warring Sinaloa Cartel. Cocaine made this possible, as described in a superb Wall Street Journal investigation last week.

This ascent has been aided by a dramatic shift in US drug consumption: Cocaine use is surging again while fentanyl’s growth shows signs of slowing. Record-high cocaine production, lower prices, and cocaine’s perception as “safer” than synthetic opioids have driven a new boom in the US market, after years of European dominance.

The CJNG shrewdly capitalized on these trends, and on Sinaloa’s internal turmoil, to specialize in cocaine trafficking just as demand rebounded.

The US Coast Guard made its record-high seizure of cocaine in Florida in August 2025. Source: US Coast Guard

Below, I explore, in five major takeaways, why the US cocaine market is booming again, how CJNG outmaneuvered the Sinaloa Cartel’s Chapitos in the cocaine trade, and how CJNG built cocaine-specific supply chains from South America to US streets.