Juan Carlos Valencia González, a 41-year-old dual U.S.-Mexican citizen born in Santa Ana, California, has taken command of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) following the February 22 killing of his stepfather, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.

His citizenship places the first American national at the head of a major Mexican drug trafficking organization and creates procedural constraints on how U.S. agencies can act against him.

Valencia González is the stepson of Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” who was killed in a predawn Mexican military raid in Tapalpa, Jalisco. Current and former U.S. officials said targeting a U.S. citizen would require attorney general approval and authorization from a foreign intelligence court.

Surveillance would also require demonstrating to that court that Valencia González is “acting as an agent of a foreign power,” officials said.

“Can the government kill a U.S. person overseas or even at home without a trial if they are perceived to be a threat to the U.S.?” former CIA official Steven Cash told The Wall Street Journal.

Valencia González, also known by the aliases “El 3,” “El Pelón,” and “Pelacas,” consolidated his position after El Mencho was buried in Guadalajara in early March. Senior cartel lieutenants backed his ascent to prevent an internal power struggle, and Mexican security consultant Eduardo Guerrero told The Wall Street Journal that Valencia González holds “the greatest legitimacy” for a stable transfer of leadership.

His cartel lineage runs through both parents. His biological father, Armando Valencia Cornelio, founded the Milenio Cartel. His mother, Rosalinda González Valencia, remarried El Mencho and has been identified by investigators as a financial figure within the CJNG.

Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense had previously identified Valencia González as a commander of Grupo Elite, the cartel’s armed wing.

A federal grand jury in Washington indicted Valencia González in 2020 on charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances for unlawful importation into the United States. The State Department posted a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction in December 2021.

REWARD @StateDept offers up to $5 M for arrest &/or conviction of Juan Carlos Valencia Gonzalez aka “Pelon,” one of the alleged leaders of the #CJNG cartel. Valencia Gonzalez’s stepfather is CJNG leader Nemesio Ruben Oseguera-Cervantes “El Mencho” Read⬇️https://t.co/XsFD6SZH31 pic.twitter.com/QbQVJ31rIV

— DEALosAngeles (@DEALOSANGELES) December 2, 2021

El Mencho’s biological son, Rubén Oseguera González, was sentenced to life in prison by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington on March 7, 2025, on drug trafficking and firearms charges, removing him from succession consideration.

El Mencho’s death set off retaliatory attacks across at least 20 Mexican states. More than 70 people were killed and at least 25 National Guard troops died in the first days of cartel-led violence, according to Mexican government figures. Mexico deployed 10,000 troops to restore order.

InSight Crime assessed in March 2026 that the CJNG’s network of regional alliances with criminal organizations in Colombia, Ecuador, and Guatemala would limit disruption to northbound cocaine flows, predicting only temporary instability from the leadership transition.