A California man who was the co-founder of Cartel Jalisco New Generation pleaded guilty to federal drug conspiracy charges in a U.S. federal court and awaits sentencing. Cartel Jalisco is currently considered one of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels, known not only for its use of thousands of gunmen but also for the widespread use of explosives in its attacks throughout Mexico. CJNG is one of six Mexican cartels currently listed as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. government.
This week, 49-year-old Erick “El 85” Valencia Salazar, who is originally from Santa Clara, California, went before a U.S. federal judge and pleaded guilty to one drug conspiracy charge. Federal prosecutors agreed to dismiss various other charges that had been filed against him. Valencia is expected to be sentenced on July 31, where he faces a minimum 10-year term and a maximum of life in prison.
The plea comes just weeks after Mexican military forces carried out a U.S.-led operation that led to the killing of CJNG’s co-founder and supreme leader, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, along with two other top leaders.
According to information released by the U.S. Department of Justice, Valencia and his relatives had worked with various other cartels and then began the Milenio Cartel and their financial wing known as Los Cuinis, which operated for several years in the shadows. Under the leadership of El Mencho, the Milenio Cartel became CJNG and, in a short span, went from obscurity into one of Mexico’s most feared cartels known for its extreme levels of violence and the use of terror tactics to establish its dominance. CJNG has been linked to numerous cartel killing fields where its victims were not only incinerated, but in some cases, in Mexico, and videos shared on social media show CJNG members eating the flesh of their rivals and victims as a show of dominance.
Breitbart Texas reported extensively on how CJNG established paramilitary forces and recruited Colombian terrorist fighters to develop the use of explosives as part of their tactics. Over time, CJNG pushed the envelope on the use of drones to deliver explosives, a tactic that eventually spread to other cartels and has since become common in Mexico.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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