{"id":394688,"date":"2026-07-11T12:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T12:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/394688\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T12:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T12:46:14","slug":"california-born-drug-lord-takes-over-mexicos-deadliest-cartel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/394688\/","title":{"rendered":"California-born drug lord takes over Mexico’s deadliest cartel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new boss of Mexico\u2019s most powerful drug cartel was born in California \u2014 raising thorny legal questions about how the Trump administration can go after a US citizen on foreign soil.<\/p>\n

Juan Carlos Valencia, 41, who was born in Santa Ana, was identified Wednesday by US intelligence as the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, nearly five months after his stepfather, Nemesio \u201cEl Mencho\u201d Oseguera, was killed during a Mexican military anti-drug operation.<\/p>\n

Valencia was indicted on drug trafficking<\/a> and weapons charges in Washington, DC in October 2020. <\/p>\n

\"HeadshotSanta Ana, California native Juan Carlos Valencia was signaled this week by U.S. intelligence as the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, succeeding the co-founder, his stepfather, Nemesio \u2018El Mencho\u2019 Oseguera. U.S. Dept. of State<\/p>\n

The US a year later offered a $5 million reward for his capture, which still stands.<\/p>\n

A former US law enforcement officia, who was once assigned to Mexico told The Post it\u2019s now up to Washington to decide if and how it will escalate its pursuit of the newly crowned \u2014 but American-born \u2014 cartel king.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should change the rules of engagement where we will not target. We\u2019re not supposed to target, put a U.S. citizen in danger. He\u2019s got dual citizenship. But his US citizenship should protect him from the typical protocol of launching an operation that would put his life in unnecessary jeopardy,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US will never say that they\u2019re the ones who coordinated an operation because it\u2019s Mexican soil and its Mexican sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former federal official said the Mexican government would use intelligence provided by the US to hunt down Valencia.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it would be their operation. That\u2019s the way to get around the citizenship thing if somebody wanted to get around it,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n

\"HeadshotNemesio \u2018El Mencho\u2019 Oseguera co-founded the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and led it to become Mexico\u2019s most powerful criminal organization. El Mencho died Feb. 22 after he was shot during an operation by the Mexican military. U.S. Department of State<\/p>\n

Valencia is the son of Armando Valencia, co-founder of the now-defunct Milenio Cartel, <\/a>who served prison time in Mexico and was then extradited to the US, where he was released from prison in 2020 and has not been heard of or seen since.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His mother Rosalinda Gonz\u00e1lez had three children with El Mencho<\/a>, including R\u00faben \u2018El Menchito\u2019 Oseguera, who was convicted in a DC federal court in September 2024 and sentenced to life in March 2025.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s unknown when the family moved to back Mexico, Valencia rose through the cartel ranks and became one of the leaders of \u201cGrupo Elite,\u201d the criminal organization\u2019s armed wing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Valencia was the second in line to the cartel throne behind Audias \u2018El Jardinero\u2019 Flores, who was arrested by the Mexican navy on April 27.<\/p>\n

Mexican security consultant David Saucedo told The Post that rumors have been raised as to whether Valencia may have set up Flores.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter he was arrested, there were practically no acts of narco-terrorism \u2014 no roadblocks, no looting of stores, and no reaction whatsoever from the Jalisco Cartel,\u201d Saucedo said. \u201cThere was no significant backlash. This suggests that Juan Carlos Valencia himself was in on it and was the one who revealed El Jardinero\u2019s location, thereby eliminating internal rivals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new boss of Mexico\u2019s most powerful drug cartel was born in California \u2014 raising thorny legal questions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,57283,2781,2457,1880],"class_list":["post-394688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-drug-cartels","tag-drugs","tag-mexico","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}