A California-born U.S. citizen whose mother is a Mexican national and is reportedly part of a drug and money laundering cartel herself, has now taken the helm of Mexico’s most dangerous cartel as the Supreme Court is set to consider a Trump administration challenge to the very birthright policy that granted him that citizenship.
Multiple reports indicate that the 41-year-old Juan Carlos Valencia González, a dual U.S. and Mexican citizen, took charge of the notorious “Jalisco New Generation” cartel (CJNG) in the aftermath of a Mexican special forces raid that took out the cartel’s former boss, El Mencho, last month.
The raid was the most direct action Mexican authorities have taken against the cartels in coordination with the United States, which, under President Donald Trump, ramped up pressure on the drug trafficking organizations after naming them designated foreign terrorist organizations.
U.S. intelligence helped locate past cartel kingpin in Mexico
As a result, the American administration has increased surveillance of the cartels and, at times, has threatened to take direct military action if Mexico didn’t step up. It was reportedly U.S. intelligence that provided Mexico with the location of El Mencho, precipitating the successful operation.
CJNG was shepherded to prominence by that former leader, Ruben Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” and grew into Mexico’s most powerful and well-equipped cartel. Based in Mexico’s coastal Jalisco state, the cartel’s network operates a global drug trafficking empire spanning from China to North Africa and has for years smuggled drugs into the United States.
But now, with El Mencho dead, and his biological son in an American prison for life, the cartel has turned to Valencia González, his stepson, to assume leadership of the sprawling enterprise. Valencia González’s American citizenship is likely to complicate the U.S. government’s efforts to gather intelligence but could also stand in the way of any future military strikes against him as head of CJNG.
Hellbound and Down 