Why would the most wanted drug trafficker in Mexico and the US be more afraid of coronavirus than the DEA?

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The 53-year-old drug trafficker has been living for months on run, hunted down by the two countries that offer a ten million US dollar reward for him.

Just in early March, the United States government launched an intense hunt against Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes “El Mencho”, head of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), the Donald Trump administration sent a warning to the drug trafficker with the so-called Project Phyton, during which more than 700 members of the criminal organization operating in that country were captured.

Previously, in February, the governments of Mexico and the United States had launched another forceful message, the son of Mencho, Rubén Oseguera González “El Menchito” was extradited, and his daughter, Jessica Johanna Oseguera González was detained while attending one of her brother’s hearings .

Since October 2018, the United States government began a public hunt against “El Mencho” and his criminal organization. Documents from the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) indicate that the cartel operates in at least 21 areas of the United States, mainly in Los Angeles, El Paso Texas, New York, Chicago and different areas of Florida.

“El Mencho” has not only been hidden in the mountains for more than a year, but according to local Jalisco media, the man suffers from kidney failure, a condition that keeps him on dialysis and practically tied to a bed.

Kidney failure is a condition that causes the kidneys to lose the ability to remove waste and balance fluids.

Although he is 53 years old, his alleged condition places him among the group of most vulnerable people to get coronavirus.

According to figures offered by the Kidney Foundation website, older adults and people with kidney disease or other serious chronic medical conditions, are at risk, in case of getting infected with coronavirus, because their condition could easily worsen.

Chronic kidney failure patients, like transplant recipients, have a low immune system, making them susceptible to other diseases.

Despite being a population with wide possibilities of contagion, Jonathan Chávez, a doctor attached to the Nephrology Service of the Civil Hospital of Guadalajara told Infobae Mexico that this type of patient also has a high chance of recovering from COVID-19.

He cited a study conducted in China among 34 patients with kidney damage who were positive for the coronavirus and no deaths were recorded.

Nemesio Oseguera would be hidden in the mountains of Jalisco, currently the third state with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

For the US government, which offers 10 million USD, as a reward for the capture of Oseguera Cervantes, it is essential to arrest “El Mencho”, since the CJNG is flooding the US with thousands of kilos of methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl each year, which generates for that country an addiction and general health problem.

The Mazatlan Post