New Snag for US Drug War: Cartel Leader Is an American

After the powerful Mexican cartel leader known as El Mencho was killed in a raid, the name of his successor quickly surfaced: his 41-year-old stepson Juan Carlos Valencia Gonzalez, reports NDTV. But as the Wall Street Journal notes, the ascension of Valencia Gonzalez presents a unique hurdle to US efforts to fight the narcotics trade: The leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is an American citizen who was born in California. As a result, US intelligence agencies face stricter rules to surveil or target him abroad: They would likely need approval from the attorney general and a secret foreign intelligence court, potentially slowing joint operations with Mexico's government.

For now, Mexican officials see Valencia Gonzalez—who has a $5 million US bounty and a reputation for violence—as the likeliest figure to keep the cartel unified and avoid a bloody internal war after El Mencho's death. The rise to power of the man whose nicknames include "Baldy," Bimbo," and "R-3" cements his family's grip on an organization known for paramilitary firepower, territorial expansion, and a multibillion-dollar business spanning cocaine, meth, fentanyl, fuel theft, and timeshare fraud. The Journal notes that his biological father, Armando Valencia Cornelio, also ran a cartel back in the 1970s called the Milenio Cartel.