The cartel leader’s son-in-law lied about his death and said he was going to live in California, investigators said

When a man named Luis Miguel Martinez moved into a $1.2 million home in the exclusive Riverside neighborhood in 2023, he brought with it the usual glamour.

Luxury cars are parked outside, including a BMW and another car with Mexican plates.

But after he was arrested this week by federal authorities, neighbors learned that Martinez was suspected of being a stranger. His real name, investigators say, is Cristian Fernando Gutierrez-Ochoa, and he is the son-in-law of a Mexican drug lord known as El Mencho.

Gutierrez-Ochoa, a former senior member of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, or CJNG, went missing in Mexico in December 2023, reportedly killed for lying to his wife’s father, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes.

Authorities arrested a man who allegedly died in Riverside on Tuesday, charging Gutierrez-Ochoa with drug trafficking and money laundering.

Court records do not show that he has retained an attorney or entered a plea in response to the charges.

“The Jalisco Cartel – one of the world’s most violent drug trafficking organizations – is weakened today by law enforcement efforts to track down and arrest a cartel leader who is accused of lying about his death and lying to avoid justice. and live a life of luxury in California,” Deputy Atty. Gen. Lisa Monaco said in a statement.

Gutierrez-Ochoa, 37, allegedly began working for CJNG in 2014, and later married the youngest daughter of El Mencho, identified in court records as a U.S. citizen who owns a coffee shop in Riverside.

According to court documents, Gutierrez-Ochoa coordinated the shipment of 40 metric tons of meth and 2,000 kilograms of cocaine to Mexico, all destined for the United States.

He also used violence to further drug and money laundering, prosecutors said.

Gutierrez-Ochoa is accused of kidnapping two members of the Mexican military in November 2021 in an attempt to secure the release of his mother-in-law, El Mencho’s wife, who was being held by Mexican authorities.

Based on an arrest warrant related to that kidnapping, the Mexican government in September 2022 issued an Interpol Red Notice seeking the arrest of Gutierrez-Ochoa.

A confidential DEA source later reported that Gutierrez-Ochoa was missing, killed by his father-in-law. Authorities suspect that El Mencho helped Gutierrez-Ochoa by spreading rumors in a scheme to fake his death.

The Justice Department previously brought back an indictment against El Mencho in April 2022, accusing him of leading a continuing criminal enterprise to manufacture and distribute fentanyl for import into the US, according to the Justice Department. There is a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest. The cartel leader remains a fugitive.

The same year Gutierrez-Ochoa disappeared, a company called Pasion Azul, the alleged tequila producer and alleged embezzler, paid $1.2 million in cash for a luxury residence in an exclusive Riverside neighborhood, according to an affidavit from the company. Kyle Mori of the DEA’s Los Angeles office.

Mori said he spoke with the escrow, real estate agent and home seller, who called the conditions of the purchase “suspicious.” The previous owner of the house said he believed the buyers were “drug dealers” from Mexico.

In October 2024, the DEA in LA in October learned of an Interpol notice that sought the arrest of Gutierrez-Ochoa. The Department of Homeland Security compared known photos of Gutierrez-Ochoa and found them to be similar to Martinez’s, according to the affidavit.

The department used facial recognition software and determined that Gutierrez-Ochoa and Martinez were the same person, Mori said.

When DEA agents tried to surveil Gutierrez-Ochoa, Mori said, he began using surveillance tactics and later began following the agent. Authorities arrested him on Nov. 19.

If convicted as charged, Gutierrez-Ochoa faces up to 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison for conspiracy to distribute drugs.

Before Gutierrez-Ochoa there was a long history of Mexican kings lying to avoid capture, and El Mencho himself is rumored to have been killed several times. In 2020, amid reports that the CJNG boss is dead or suffering from chronic kidney disease, the Mexican president and the DEA publicly say he is alive and on the run.