U.S. names El Mencho's stepson as new Jalisco cartel leader

The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center now identifies Juan Carlos Valencia González, known as El 03, as the overall leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The designation places a U.S. citizen at the top of one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organizations after the reported killing of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, in a Mexican military operation in Tapalpa, Jalisco, on February 22, 2026.

Washington’s move matters because it turns a succession battle into an intelligence and enforcement target. The NCTC says CJNG operates with a hierarchical command structure in which regional leaders manage day-to-day operations for Valencia, and it estimates the group has 15,000 to 20,000 members, generates roughly $1 billion a year and holds dominant territory across Jalisco, Nayarit, Colima, Veracruz, Guanajuato, Puebla, Querétaro and Hidalgo. The cartel emerged in 2010 from the remnants of the Milenio Cartel, a former Sinaloa Cartel faction, and the NCTC calls it the main competitor to Sinaloa.

The shift also suggests continuity at the top rather than an immediate internal rupture. The NCTC’s updated guidance lists other possible contenders, including El Chorro, El Sapo and El Jardinero, but the new designation points to Valencia as the figure now holding the structure together. CJNG’s own succession pattern matters for border and sanctions policy: if senior operatives rallied around Valencia to avoid a destructive fight, U.S. agencies face a cartel that remains organized, mobile and deeply embedded in trafficking corridors.

Valencia’s U.S. citizenship adds another layer. He was born in Santa Ana, California, on September 12, 1984, and is described as the son of Armando Valencia Cornelio and Rosalinda González Valencia, who later married El Mencho. He has spent more than two decades moving inside the organization while remaining largely invisible to the public and authorities, with ties to Grupo Élite and a record that kept him on U.S. radar for years.

U.S. court records show Valencia was indicted in Washington on October 8, 2020, on cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking charges, and the State Department has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest and conviction. U.S. officials also now describe CJNG as a brutally violent organization involved in drug trafficking, fuel theft, extortion and timeshare fraud, a broader portfolio that gives sanctions and border enforcement a wider target set than narcotics alone.