The 'CJNG' boom after Nacho Coronel

 CHAR 

THIS ARTICLE WAS POSTED BY MURAL 

WRITTEN BY: GRUPO REFORMA 

IGNACIO CORONEL VILLAREAL 

EL REY DEL 'ICE' 

THE KING OF ICE 

If the history of crime has taught us anything, it's that when one head is cut off, others rise to replace it.

However, what no one expected, in the case of Ignacio 'Nacho' Coronel, is that after being killed in the midst of Felipe Calderón's war on drugs, a much more ambitious and violent group would emerge: the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

With such an elusive figure as Ignacio Coronel, there is no certainty even about his birthplace.

Some say he was born on February 1, 1954, in Canelas, Durango, while an FBI report—dated April 17, 2003—indicated he was originally from Veracruz.

The drug lord began as the "godmother" of the commander of the Federal Judicial Police, José Luis Fuentes Jiménez, in Baja California, but soon joined Amado Carrillo Fuentes' group.

Coronel arrived in Guadalajara in the early 1990s on orders from the "Lord of the Skies." He was in the city with his brother Magdaleno Coronel Villarreal, "El Leno," who was the plaza boss.

However, along with his nephew Raymundo Carrasco Coronel, Magdaleno died in Zapopan on June 3, 1993, in a shootout with soldiers. It was then that the natural successor to protect Guadalajara's territory from other groups was Nacho Coronel.

The death of Amado Carrillo during plastic surgery in 1997, as well as the fall of General Gutiérrez Rebollo, led the drug lord to join forces with the Sinaloa Cartel, placing him under the command of Joaquín Guzmán, known as El Chapo.

A skilled drug trafficker, Nacho Coronel expanded his range of activities: in addition to cocaine, he trafficked methamphetamines and had dozens of clandestine laboratories throughout the country, allowing him to control more than 50 percent of synthetic drug production, according to the DEA.

He also negotiated with the Valencia brothers of the Milenio Cartel to conduct joint drug trafficking operations to the United States, effectively distancing Guadalajara from the drug-related violence that already plagued the rest of the country.

Despite everything, on the afternoon of July 29, 2010, the drug lord was killed by the Army in an operation carried out at his mansion in Colinas de San Javier.

CJNG PREVAILS

After the fall of Nacho Coronel, the Milenio Cartel suffered a split between La Resistencia and the CJNG. After three years of homicides, massacres, and bodies hanging from bridges, the latter group, led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as "El Mencho," prevailed.

The CJNG would employ the same terror tactics to achieve impressive expansion in a short period of time.

For example, in 2015, the DEA identified Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit, and parts of Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, Michoacán, Oaxaca, and Chiapas as the cartel's areas of influence.

By 2025, the landscape had changed completely. Today, the CJNG has a strong presence in virtually all states of Mexico, according to DEA information.

Likewise, unlike the business model of Nacho Coronel, "El Mencho" seeks to appropriate as much as he can.

The former focused on drug trafficking, primarily synthetic drugs.

Now, CJNG leaders have expanded their businesses to include extortion, fraud, illegal logging, arms trafficking, and heavy cargo theft, among many other crimes.

This, however, has come at an enormous cost in bloodshed.

Speaking only of the Jalisco case, the battles the CJNG has waged against other criminal groups have left a trail of violence and destruction.

There are also countless cases of innocent victims who have lost their lives due to the boundless ambition of "El Mencho" and his accomplices, as well as due to the inaction (and in some cases, complicity) of authorities at all three levels of government.

As a consequence and reflection of this, there have been cases such as the murder of young people working in call centers, the CAAV film students mistaken for criminals, the execution of the González Moreno brothers, and the recruitment center at Rancho Izaguirre. All of this is compounded by the problem of disappearances that keeps Jalisco in first place nationwide.

Over the years, the CJNG has only spread its tentacles, not only in Jalisco but also around the world. And, so far, it remains unclear who or how they can stop it.

AGGRESSIVE EXPANSION

Ten years ago, the CJNG barely controlled Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit, and parts of Michoacán, Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Veracruz. It now operates nationwide.

Some of the businesses the cartel has entered into:

• Drug trafficking
• Human trafficking
• Criminal call centers
• Huachicoleo
• Timeshare fraud
• Extortion
• Money laundering involving currency exchange centers, real estate, and restaurants
• Arms trafficking
• Slot machines
• Mineral theft
• Heavy cargo theft
• Illegal logging

These are the preliminary investigations and homicide files:

2009: 570 Arrest of Óscar Orlando Nava, "El Lobo," Valencia.

2010: 888 Deaths of Nacho Coronel.

2011: 1,222 deaths, War between La Resistencia and CJNG.

2012: 1,184

2013: 1,099 deaths. The CJNG prevails and begins expansion.

2014: 907

2015: 957

2016: 1,105. Violence intensifies in the Los Altos region.

2017: 1,342 Carlos Enrique Sánchez Martínez, "El Cholo," forms the Nueva Plaza Cartel.

2018: 1,960

2019: 2,017

2020: 1,754

2021: 1,816 War between CJNG and CNP ends after death of "El Cholo."

2022: 1,601

2023: 1,449

2024: 1,442

2025: 529 (as of June)

SOURCE: MURAL 

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“He Is Not A Criminal": Lawyers Of Erick Valencia Salazar El 85, Co-Founder Of CJNG, Demand That The Court Attracts Case To Stop Extradition To The United States

 "Char" for Borderland Beat 

This article was translated and reposted from INFOBAE 

Relatives of 'El 85′ protested near the SCJN to request that his trial be resolved in Mexico.

WRITTEN BY: BARUC MAYEN 

AUGUST 14, 2024

Relatives of Erick Valencia Salazar, alias 'El 85', demonstrated outside the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation to demand that his criminal proceedings be carried out in accordance with justice. (Infobae México/Baruc Mayen)

With slogans such as “No to extradition!” and “Fair trial!”, relatives and lawyers of Erick Valencia Salazar, alleged co-founder of the Jalisco Cartel - New Generation (CJNG), held a protest outside the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) to demand that a minister of the Highest Court take charge of the case.

The main request of the protesters, as well as Valencia's legal representation, is that he not be handed over to US authorities and that his case be resolved promptly in national territory.

In an interview with Infobae Mexico, lawyers Marco Cortes Rodriguez and Omar Gutierrez explained that Erick Valencia, alias 'El 85′, has no pending investigation or criminal proceedings in Mexico. “He is detained for extradition purposes only. All the investigations that at the time the Attorney General's Office wanted to exhaust were already prosecuted and he was acquitted.”

Valencia Salazar was first arrested in March 2012 by Mexican Army agents in Zapopan, Jalisco. More than five and a half years later, in December 2017, a judge in Puente Grande ordered his release on the grounds that there were violations of due process and a lack of irrefutable evidence to prove the defendant's responsibility in crimes such as organized crime and carrying weapons for the exclusive use of the Armed Forces.

In May 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an indictment against Erick Valencia for cocaine trafficking. In the words of his legal representatives, the investigations for this criminal charge would have derived in a possible violation of his rights.

“He is accused in the United States for a wiretap, they invaded his human rights without a court order, there was no technology judge that allowed the wiretap [...] A written copy of a phone call and that is the only thing they have as evidence”, the lawyers accused during the demonstration at the SCJN.

“There is no scientific, expert or congruent evidence where the Mexican State can say that Erick Valencia is guilty of what they are accusing him of,” the legal defense claimed.

“With this evidence they want to send him to foreign territory, then what is the use of our Magna Carta? Supposedly there is a principle of sovereignty. So if they are intercepting our communications, are we being sovereign?” added attorney Cortés Rodríguez.

As part of statements offered to the press during the rally at the seat of the Maximum Court, the defense of 'El 85′ assured that, so far, he does not have any legal advisor in the United States, because it has not been considered necessary.

“He firmly believes in Mexican justice, he believes he is going to stay here because he is not a criminal, simply because he carries a last name does not mean he is a criminal,” the lawyers assured.

Based on the indictment filed in the Columbia Court, authorities issued a provisional arrest warrant for extradition purposes against Erick Valencia, which was served in Tapalpa, Jalisco, on September 4, 2022.

Marco Cortés Rodríguez is one of the lawyers representing Valencia Salazar (Infobae México/Baruc Mayen).

“The fear is that they will listen to the U.S. with evidence that has no basis. Mr. Erick Valencia has all the confidence in the Mexican justice system so that they can determine whether he is guilty or not,” said lawyer Omar Gutiérrez to Infobae Mexico.

During the demonstration in the Historic Center, the lawyers acknowledged that a worker from the Liaison Unit of the SCJN had assured them that he would give them an appointment to follow up on the case. However, he did not set a date for this.

“What we want is for one of the ministers that make up the First Chamber of the SCJN to listen to us. Our interest is that he be tried here in Mexico, not only that he not be taken to the U.S., but that the Mexican justice system realize that they are making a mistake by having accepted Mr. Erick Valencia without evidence,” Gutiérrez told this newspaper.

Up to the date of the protest, none of the members of the First Chamber of the Court have explicitly expressed their interest in attracting the case of 'El 85′. In the event that this instance declines jurisdiction to handle this matter, the lawyers will go before the Collegiate Court based in Toluca, State of Mexico, to present the corresponding legal recourse.

FOLLOW-UP    BY: CHAR

Manuel Espino Bucion on X states the following, " #LastHour an unusual event, lawyers, family and friends of Erick Valencia Salazar, “El 85” and ex-partner of “El Mencho”, protest in front of the SCJN to ask it to take over the case of his extradition to the US."

ERICK VALENCIA-SALAZAR "EL 85" 

SOURCE: INFOBAE , U.S. DEPARMENT OF STATE,  MANUEL ESPINO BUCIO 

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