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Milenio Cartel

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Defunct Mexican criminal organization

Criminal organization
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Milenio Cartel
Founded byArmando Valencia Cornelio
Founding locationUruapan, Michoacán, Mexico
Years active1970s–2010
TerritoryMexico: Michoacán, Colima, Jalisco, Mexico City, Puebla, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas
United States: California, Oregon, Texas, Illinois, North Carolina, Maryland
EthnicityMexican
ActivitiesDrug trafficking, money laundering, murder and arms trafficking.
AlliesSinaloa Cartel
La Resistencia[1][2]
RivalsGulf Cartel
Knights Templar Cartel[1][2]
Notable membersErick Valencia Salazar (“El 85”)

Armando Valencia Cornelio (“El Maradona”)

Juan Carlos Valencia Gonzalez (“El 03”)

The Milenio Cartel (Spanish: Cártel del Milenio), originally and alternatively called the Cártel de los Valencia,[a] was a Mexican criminal organization founded in Michoacán in the 1970s by members of the Valencia Family. It relocated to Jalisco in the early 2000s.

The cartel began to fracture by 2009, and ceased to exist by 2010; it is the predecessor to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the United Cartels gang.

History

Founding by the Valencia Family

The Milenio Cartel first appeared in the late 1970s when the Valencia family, an avocado farmer family from Tamaulipas, started to grow cannabis and opium poppies in Jalisco and Michoacán for sale to bigger cartels. The cartel was founded by Armando Valencia Cornelio (“El Maradona”), alongside his cousins Erick Valencia Salazar (“El 85”), Luis and Ventura Valencia Valencia.[3] Other family members would join the cartel over time.

The cartel operated in at least six Mexican states: Michoacán, Colima, Jalisco, Mexico City, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas, where it produced marijuana and heroin. By the mid-1990s, the cartel had close connections with Colombian traffickers like Fabio Ochoa Vásquez of the Medellín Cartel, and began working with synthetic drugs provided by Zhenli Ye Gon by early 2003.[3]

Armando Valencia Cornelio was arrested in Guadalajara on August 15, 2003 by members of the Mexican Military and Mexican Attorney General’s Office.[4] Luis Valencia Valencia and Óscar Nava Valencia (“El Lobo”) took control of the cartel, and Nava Valencia associated the Milenio Cartel with the Sinaloa Cartel in order to protect their own structure. As a result, the Milenio Cartel became a branch of what was known as the Sinaloa Federation, under the direct orders of Ignacio Coronel Villarreal.[5][3][6][7][8] Óscar Nava and his brother Juan Nava Valencia (“El Tigre”) would become responsible for the planning and smuggling of cocaine shipments into the United States from Central and South America through the Port of Manzanillo in Colima.[9]

On October 28, 2009, Óscar Nava Valencia was captured following a gunfight with Mexican Army troops in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Jalisco.[9] Juan Nava Valencia took over the leadership of the Milenio Cartel until May 6, 2010, when he was arrested in Guadalajara during an operation by the Mexican Army.[9]

Fracture and formation of the CJNG and United Cartels

In the period between the 2009 capture of Óscar Nava Valencia and the 2010 assassination of Sinaloa Federation leader Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, a power vacuum within the Milenio Cartel emerged. The cartel would break into smaller factions, with the two primary groups being La Resistencia, headed by Ramiro González (“El Molca”), and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), headed by Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes ("El Mencho"); a turf war for control of the former territory of the Milenio Cartel started.[10][11][12][13][14]

La Resistencia formed a brief alliance with Los Zetas to oppose the CJNG, who by then referred to themselves as matazetas ('Zeta-killers') and united with the Sinaloa Cartel. Other former members that splintered from both the CJNG’s alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel[1] and La Resistencia’s alliance with Los Zetas went independent and joined La Familia Michoacana (itself a splinter group of Los Zetas) or the Gulf Cartel, following Los Zetas’ separation from the Gulf Cartel in 2010.[15][16] However, when La Familia Michoacana disbanded in 2011,[17][18] some former Milenio Cartel members relocated to Guadalajara and forged a loose alliance with a faction of Los Zetas.[2]

While this dissolution meant that some factions of the Milenio Cartel and Valencia family were now at war with each other, the core of the Valencia family aligned with the CJNG and Oseguera Cervantes, due to his marriage with Valencia family member Rosalinda González Valencia (“La Jefa”),[19] who is also the niece and ex-wife of former Milenio leader Armando Valencia Cornelio[20] as well as the mother of future CJNG leader Juan Carlos Valencia González.[21][22][23]

Convictions of former leaders

On January 29, 2011, Óscar Nava Valencia was extradited to the United States to face charges of conspiracy and drug trafficking in the Southern District of Texas.[9] He was sentenced to 25 years in prison on January 8, 2014.[24]

Armando Valencia Cornelio was released from prison early by July 2020, and was confirmed to be suffering from cancer.[25] By March 2026, Armando was still described as having only been a leader in the Milenio Cartel,[26] and in April 2026 was also confirmed as uninvolved in drug trafficking since his arrest in 2003.[25]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Meaning 'Millennium Cartel' and 'Valencia Family Cartel' respectively.

References

  1. ^ a b c "Decomiso récord de metanfetaminas en México: golpe 'histórico' a narcos". ABC Digital (in Spanish). February 10, 2012. Archived from the original on February 11, 2012. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  2. ^ a b c "El narco en México recurre a violencia sin precedentes: ONU". El Informador (in Spanish). February 29, 2012. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved March 8, 2012. Se trató de una venganza de la alianza del cártel del Milenio y "Los Zetas", en contra de los llamados Matazetas o del cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación.
  3. ^ a b c "Los Valencia, los Milenio, la Nueva Generación". Excélsior. March 13, 2012. Archived from the original on May 6, 2016. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  4. ^ Goodson, H. Nelson (February 8, 2010). "Milenio Cartel Drug Lord Sentenced to 47 Years in a Mexican Prison". Hispanic News Network. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
  5. ^ Getty Images. "Murió uno de los fundadores del cártel de Medellín". Archived from the original on May 21, 2014. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  6. ^ "Detiene PGR al narcotraficante Armando Valencia". August 16, 2003. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  7. ^ "El Universal - Los Estados - Ejecutan a hermano del líder del cártel de los Valencia". El Universal. September 2, 2015. Archived from the original on May 21, 2014. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  8. ^ "El camino de "El Lobo"". EL INFORMADOR. Archived from the original on May 6, 2016. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  9. ^ a b c d Gerardo. ""El Lobo" extradited to the U.S." Borderland Beat. Archived from the original on February 1, 2011. Retrieved January 30, 2011.
  10. ^ "Diversifica 'Mencho' mercado del narco". Archived from the original on February 26, 2015. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  11. ^ "Cae "El Molca" líder y fundador de "La Resistencia"". Archived from the original on September 1, 2021. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  12. ^ "Cayó líder del 'Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación'". Univision (in Spanish). July 15, 2011. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  13. ^ Cartels unite in the fight against Los Zetas Archived January 26, 2012, at the Wayback Machine 20 September 2011
  14. ^ "La Sedena presenta al presunto líder del cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación". CNNMéxico (in Spanish). March 12, 2012. Archived from the original on March 12, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  15. ^ Grayson, George W. (February 19, 2009). "La Familia: Another Deadly Mexican Syndicate". Zimbio. Archived from the original on January 28, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
  16. ^ Crime, InSight (August 30, 2024). "Zetas". InSight Crime. Retrieved October 1, 2026.
  17. ^ Vega, Aurora (November 2, 2011). "Templarios dominan Michoacán, donde habrá elecciones el día 13". Excelsior (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 28, 2012. Retrieved February 10, 2012.
  18. ^ "Surgieron cuatro grupos del narco en 2011; el chapo es el mas poderoso". Narcotrafico en Mexico (in Spanish). August 7, 2011. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
  19. ^ Pasada, Juan Diego (November 17, 2021). "El Mencho's Wife Arrested – What Does it Mean for Jalisco Cartel?". Insight Crime. Retrieved April 6, 2026.
  20. ^ Reina, Elena (November 16, 2021). "La caída de Rosalinda González, 'jefa' y heredera de un clan de narcotraficantes" (in Spanish). El Pais. Retrieved April 6, 2026.
  21. ^ Lomeli, Jonathan (May 28, 2018). "¿Quién es Rosalinda, la esposa de "El Mencho"?". ElInformador. Retrieved April 6, 2026.
  22. ^ de Córdoba, José; Pérez, Santiago; Fisher, Steve (March 18, 2026). "A U.S. Citizen Now Runs Mexico's Top Drug Cartel—and Targeting Him Is Complicated". Wall Street Journal.
  23. ^ "Vocero de Jalisco: no hay código rojo por captura de esposa de 'El Mencho'". Excélsior (in Spanish). May 27, 2018. Archived from the original on May 27, 2018.
  24. ^ "Dan 25 años a ex colaborador de 'Nacho' Coronel en EU". Milenio (in Spanish). January 8, 2014. Archived from the original on January 9, 2014. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
  25. ^ a b Guillén, Beatriz (April 6, 2026). "Juan Carlos Valencia Gonzalez". El Pais. Retrieved April 6, 2026.
  26. ^ Ferri, Pablo (March 23, 2026). "Loose ends remain after the downfall of El Mencho, the last great drug lord". El Pais. Retrieved April 6, 2026.
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