California-Born Career Criminal Takes Control of Mexican Cartel Following Death of ‘El Mencho’

The head of a vicious Mexican cartel has been cut down — and replaced with an American with a $5 million bounty on his head!

Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) jefe Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes was killed by Mexican special forces trained by American Navy SEALs on Feb. 22, but before the dirt can harden on his grave, California-born Juan Carlos Valencia González has already reportedly taken control of his bloody $20 billion operation, per New York Post.

Law enforcement experts say the violent career criminal is the stepson of the slain kingpin who has the backing of his powerful mother, Rosalinda “La Jefa” González Valencia, who happened to be married to the slain drug lord.

Known as “El Pelón,” or “El 03,” González, 42, who is from Santa Ana, Calif., moved into position to take over for his stepfather after El Mencho’s brother Antonio Oseguera Cervantes was taken into U.S. custody last year and his son Rubén Oseguera-González was sentenced to life plus 30 years for drug trafficking.

Officials say he was a key member of a strategic circle that facilitated the cartel’s massive trafficking of drugs into the United States.

Sources say Mexican cartel bosses often have family members who are American citizens, says Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, professor and co-director of the Terrorism and Transnational Crime and Corruption Center at George Mason University.

“Some of the so-called cartel members send their families or family members to the United States, their sons and daughters,” she says. “We saw that with Chapo Guzmán. Sometimes, they are born in the United States.”

In 2020, U.S. authorities formally charged El Pelón with “drug distribution conspiracy, use of firearms and other federal offenses,” according to Merca2.0.

The massive reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction was issued the same year after an investigation found he was responsible for making and selling “tons of narcotics” and being the mastermind behind a string of violent crimes since 2007.

State Department officials say he has played a key role in the armed operations and violent actions of CJNG, which boasts between 15,000 and 20,000 members and is officially branded as a foreign terrorist organization.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is considered one of the key competitors of the Sinaloa Cartel and generates billions of dollars annually through drug trafficking, extortion and other crimes.

El Mencho’s death has set off an unprecedented wave of violence throughout Mexico, with cartel fighters bringing the country’s second-largest city, Jalisco’s state capital, Guadalajara, to a frightening standstill and leaving stranded tourists — many of them Americans — hunkering down in fear.