Mexican authorities sent him to the United States in February 2025 as part of an initial group of 29 drug lords. Last year, President Donald Trump's government designated the CJNG and other cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Valencia Salazar was arrested twice in Mexico. A California man who co-founded one of Mexico's most powerful and violent criminal groups, known by his nickname 'El 85', pleaded guilty this Tuesday in the United States to a federal charge of conspiracy related to narcotics. Erick Valencia Salazar formed the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) with Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as 'El Mencho', who was captured and killed by the Mexican army in February. Valencia Salazar, 49 and a resident of Santa Clara, California, faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison after pleading guilty in Washington, D.C., to a charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine intended for importation into the United States. Hundreds of members of the criminal organization reported to Valencia Salazar, whose functions included recruitment and obtaining information on rival groups, prosecutors said. Valencia Salazar, also known as 'El 85', formed his own cartel, La Nueva Plaza, after splitting from 'El Mencho', who led the CJNG until his death. It is scheduled that Chief Judge James Boasberg will sentence on July 31. Valencia was a member of the Millennium Cartel before he and Oseguera Cervantes founded the Cartel of Jalisco, known by its initials CJNG. Ty Duva, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's criminal division, stated that the CJNG has inflicted 'immeasurable harm' to the United States. 'Valencia Salazar was also responsible for fueling the rampant violence in Mexico, at the cost of human lives and the security of communities, which helped destabilize the region and allowed crime to prosper,' Duva stated in a statement. A grand jury indicted Valencia Salazar on the conspiracy charge in 2018. The army recaptured him in 2022 in the town of Tapalpa, the same place where 'El Mencho' was captured and killed. The U.S. Department of State had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Valencia Salazar. The first was in 2012, when the army arrested him in the municipality of Zapopan, near Guadalajara, the capital of the state of Jalisco. Five years later, he was released by order of a judge who mentioned alleged procedural flaws.
