OVERVIEW

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New Generation Jalisco Cartel (CJNG) is one of the most powerful and violent cartels in Mexico. The organization is responsible for a significant portion of the hundreds of thousands of pounds of fentanyl and other illicit drug that are trafficked into the United States and around the world. CJNG emerged in 2010 from the remnants of the Milenio Cartel, a former faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, and has expanded across Mexico since 2018. As of 2026, CJNG is the main competitor to the Sinaloa Cartel.

CJNG has a hierarchical command structure in which regional leaders manage day-to-day operations for the group’s overall leader, US person Juan Carlos Valencia González, a.k.a. El 03. CJNG uses a franchise model—an affiliation agreement between smaller, local cartels and CJNG—to facilitate expansion outside of its strongholds in Jalisco, Nayarit, and Colima.

CJNG’s criminal activities generate billions of dollars annually. The group traffics drugs to the United States, Australia, and Canada, as well as to many countries in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and Europe. CJNG’s de facto control of the Port of Manzanillo in Colima, Mexico, allows the group to import precursor chemicals to produce illicit fentanyl and methamphetamine. CJNG also profits from extortion, fuel theft, kidnapping, illegal logging and mining, migrant smuggling, and timeshare fraud.

OPERATING AREAS
Throughout Mexico; CJNG is the dominant criminal actor in Jalisco, Nayarit, Colima, Veracruz, Guanajuato, Puebla, Querétaro, and Hidalgo

MEMBERS
Approximately 15,000 to 20,000

TACTICS AND TARGETS
CJNG uses extreme violence and intimidating media to coerce local populations into cooperating with the group, overcome rival cartels and Mexican security forces, and exert control over the cartel’s own members. CJNG also coerces or incentivizes local, state, and federal judges, prosecutors, politicians, and security forces to enable the group’s activities and evade arrest.

CJNG conducts public executions and displays the bodies, often publicizing these acts on social media or leaving threatening messages. The cartel has kidnapped and “disappeared” civilians, and it has attacked and assassinated Mexican politicians, judges, and law enforcement officers. In March 2025, activists discovered the remains of hundreds of CJNG recruits at a CJNG training camp in Jalisco known as the Izaguirre Ranch.

TERRORIST GROUP DESIGNATION
The US State Department designated CJNG as a foreign terrorist organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity in February 2025. In June 2025, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned then-CJNG leader Ruben Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, a.k.a. El Mencho, three senior members—Julio Alberto Castillo Rodriguez, Audias Flores Silva, and Hugo Mendoza Gaytan—and a commander linked to the cartel’s propaganda. In 2015, OFAC sanctioned CJNG and the cartel’s financial arm, Los Cuinis, pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, as well as in 2021, pursuant to Executive Order 14059.

KEY LEADERS

NOTABLE ATTACKS