{"id":54644,"date":"2026-07-13T21:10:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T21:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/54644\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T21:10:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T21:10:19","slug":"a-us-citizen-and-el-menchos-stepson-washington-crowns-juan-carlos-valencia-as-new-leader-of-the-jalisco-new-generation-cartel-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/54644\/","title":{"rendered":"A US citizen and El Mencho\u2019s stepson: Washington crowns Juan Carlos Valencia as new leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel | International"},"content":{"rendered":"

After months of weighing the options, the United States has identified the successor to Rub\u00e9n Nemesio Oseguera<\/a>, alias \u201cEl Mencho,\u201d at the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) recently updated its Counterterrorism Guide<\/a>, naming Juan Carlos Valencia Gonz\u00e1lez, alias \u201cEl 03,\u201d as the new top leader of the criminal organization after the February killing of El Mencho by the Mexican army<\/a>. After more than 20 years in crime and operating under the shadow of his stepfather, the new boss has consolidated his power within the CJNG while maintaining a virtually invisible profile to the public and authorities. Washington now says he is the new leader of a violent organization that generates $1 billion a year from drug trafficking and other illicit businesses, and commands roughly 15,000 to 20,000 members.<\/p>\n

Since El Mencho\u2019s death in a military operation in Tapalpa, Jalisco, the CJNG had been left in limbo over its future. Many feared the power vacuum Oseguera left behind would trigger a bloody internal battle among his lieutenants for the succession. Omar Garc\u00eda Harfuch<\/a>, Mexico\u2019s federal security secretary, had already said in February that the authorities had identified four possible candidates to succeed the world\u2019s most wanted criminal. Although Harfuch did not name them explicitly, the NCTC lists them in the document with El 03 at the top, followed by his lieutenants: Julio Alberto Castillo Rodr\u00edguez, alias \u201cEl Chorro,\u201d who is also Mencho\u2019s son-in-law; Hugo Gonzalo Mendoza Gayt\u00e1n, known as \u201cEl Sapo;\u201d and Audias Flores Silva<\/a>, alias \u201cEl Jardinero,\u201d who was arrested by Mexican authorities on April 27 in an operation in Nayarit.<\/p>\n

A source familiar with cartel dynamics, consulted by The Wall Street Journal, said at least two high-ranking lieutenants agreed not to contest Valencia\u2019s claim to the throne to guarantee continuity of the businesses. Among them was El Jardinero, who controlled extensive territory in the Mexican states of Zacatecas, Guerrero, Nayarit, Jalisco, and Michoac\u00e1n. He also oversaw clandestine labs<\/a> in central Jalisco and southern Zacatecas used to produce methamphetamine and other illicit drugs trafficked to the United States.<\/p>\n

As soon as El Mencho was buried in a gilded coffin in early March, amid narco-ballads and surrounded by floral arrangements, and with his children Rub\u00e9n and Johanna Oseguera Gonz\u00e1lez \u2014 known as El Menchito and La Negra, respectively \u2014 effectively sidelined from the reorganization after being sentenced to life in prison in the United States on drug- and weapons-related charges, succession for the third name on the list seemed obvious.<\/p>\n

Valencia\u2019s mother, Rosalinda Gonz\u00e1lez Valencia<\/a>, and several of her siblings emigrated to California as teenagers. None went back to school in the United States. \u201cI had to work from the age of 14\u2026 in the fields, in packing plants, cleaning houses, babysitting and in restaurants, all to get by,\u201d she wrote in a letter that is part of a court file.<\/p>\n

Her first son, Juan Carlos Valencia Gonz\u00e1lez \u2014 also known as \u201cPel\u00f3n,\u201d \u201cEl JP\u201d or \u201cTricky Tres,\u201d who has a $5 million reward on his head for his capture \u2014 is 41 and was born in Santa Ana, California, one of the first U.S. territories where the cartel operated freely for more than a decade. El 03 comes from a long narcotics lineage. His biological father, Armando Valencia Cornelio, alias \u201cEl Maradona,\u201d founded the Millennium Cartel in the 1970s, a precursor to what would become the CJNG.<\/p>\n

According to the United States, El 03 has influence in southeast Jalisco and Colima. He is said to lead the Grupo \u00c9lite, another armed wing of the CJNG. That unit emerged in 2019 and, at the start of its fight with the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel<\/a>, was responsible for the massacre of seven police officers in Guanajuato, according to military reports. Then\u2013defense secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval confirmed in 2020 that the group also had a presence in Michoac\u00e1n, Jalisco, and Zacatecas: \u201cThey seek to present Grupo \u00c9lite as the most capable force within the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, with mobility, armored protection, firepower, and military training.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several experts agree that one of El Mencho\u2019s strengths \u2014 and what helped cement his organization \u2014 was close family ties. According to the NCTC document<\/a>, the CJNG has a \u201chierarchical command structure in which regional leaders manage day-to-day operations for the group\u2019s overall leader, U.S. person Juan Carlos Valencia Gonz\u00e1lez, a.k.a. El 03.\u201d \u201cCJNG uses a franchise model \u2014 an affiliation agreement between smaller, local cartels and CJNG \u2014 to facilitate expansion outside of its strongholds in Jalisco, Nayarit, and Colima,\u201d the document details.<\/p>\n

Valencia\u2019s rise to the fore even prompted former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Christopher Landau, to name him<\/a> in a debate over birthright citizenship: \u201cI don\u2019t believe, for instance, that \u2018El Pel\u00f3n,\u2019 apparent new head of the bloodthirsty CJNG cartel in Mexico, is a U.S. citizen simply because \u2014 as has been widely reported \u2014 he was born in California. Our Constitution is not a suicide pact.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan the government kill a U.S. citizen abroad or even in its own country without prior trial if he is considered a threat to the United States?\u201d asked Steven Cash, a former CIA official who also worked with former president Joe Biden as a senior adviser to the undersecretary for intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security. Now seated on the throne, and although his defining trait has always been his ability to stay out of the spotlight, it remains to be seen how El 03 will lead and what the next move will be for the criminal organization he has inherited.<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After months of weighing the options, the United States has identified the successor to Rub\u00e9n Nemesio Oseguera, alias…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[378,1287,23092,1284,1283,23091,95],"class_list":["post-54644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-valencia","tag-california","tag-jalisco","tag-luis-cresencio-sandoval","tag-michoacan","tag-nemesio-el-mencho","tag-omar-garcia-harfuch","tag-valencia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}