A Bay Area man who co-founded a powerful Mexican drug cartel with the late Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho,” pleaded guilty on Tuesday to federal narcotics charges, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Erick Valencia-Salazar, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and unlawfully import 5 kilograms or more of cocaine to the United States, federal prosecutors said. His sentencing was scheduled for July 30, and he faces 10 years to life in prison.
Federal prosecutors accused Valencia-Salazar, of Santa Clara, of co-founding Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, which the State Department designated as a foreign terrorist group in 2025, officials said. The Mexican army killed the leader of the group, “El Mencho,” during an operation in February.
Valencia-Salazar was accused of recruiting members to find and kill the drug trafficking organization’s enemies, taking control of all drug trafficking operations in parts of Mexico and conspiring to send thousands of kilograms of cocaine to the U.S. for the organization, federal prosecutors said.
Before co-founding the cartel, prosecutors said he was a member of another Jalisco-based cartel called the Milenio Cartel. Federal officials said Valencia-Salazar distributed pistols and rifles to use in battles and helped send multi-ton shipments of cocaine from South America to Mexico every year to import most of it into the U.S. for distribution.
“Valencia-Salazar was also responsible for furthering the rampant violence in Mexico, at the expense of people’s lives and the safety of communities, that helped destabilize the region and allow crime to flourish. Today’s conviction is yet another example of the Criminal Division’s efforts in disrupting and dismantling transnational drug trafficking organizations that harm the American people,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said in a statement.
Valencia-Salazar was taken into custody in February from Mexico, prosecutors said. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Special Operations Division Bilateral Investigations Unit in Los Angeles was investigating the case.