Recent Rosalinda González Valencia News What’s Next for Mexico’s CJNG After the Killing of ‘El Mencho’? Mexico’s underworld could experience far-reaching changes after the killing of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho,” the leader of the Jalisco Cartel and the country’s most-wanted criminal. Read More Updates February 24, 2026: CJNG Violence After the Killing of ‘El Mencho’: Power Play or Last Gasp?

The government’s killing of “El Mencho” on February 22 provoked a spasm of violence by his cartel that has been, in some ways, unprecedented. But previous displays of force by aggrieved criminal groups have proven to be largely temporary and, in most instances, a last gasp before sputtering and atomizing. What Is Rosalinda González Valencia’s Story?

Rosalinda González Valencia was born in 1963 in the rural community of El Naranjo, Aguililla, Michoacán, and was the eldest of 18 siblings. Originally avocado farmers, the Valencia family began cultivating marijuana and opium in the 1970s, marking their shift into illicit markets. In the 1990s, González Valencia’s uncle Armando Valencia González, alias “La Maradona,” founded the Milenio Cartel.

Under his leadership, the Valencia family evolved from a regional supplier for criminal groups in Michoacán and Jalisco into a more international force, establishing direct relationships with Colombian cocaine traffickers and expanding into synthetic drug production. SEE ALSO: Mexico Organized Crime News During this period, González Valencia and her siblings, collectively known as the Cuinis, developed a sophisticated transnational money laundering and drug trafficking network. They moved cocaine, methamphetamine, and eventually fentanyl into the United States before laundering the proceeds through a web of front companies and incorporated businesses.

González Valencia had her first son, Juan Carlos Valencia González, alias “El 03, before partnering with El Mencho. The father of her first son was extradited and convicted of drug trafficking and money laundering. Gónzalez Valencia married El Mencho in 1996.

He allegedly began as a hitman that protected La Maradona before becoming a drug trafficker and marrying Gónzalez Valencia. Their marriage was a strategic alliance that fused the financial infrastructure of Los Cuinis and El Mencho’s operational force and ambitions. One of the founders of the Cuinis, González Valencia’s brother, Abigael González Valencia, alias “El Cuini,” was arrested in Puerto Vallarta in 2015 on international drug trafficking charges.

He was extradited, along with other Valencia family members who were part of Los Cuinis, to the United States in February 2025. He is currently awaiting trial. SEE ALSO: CJNG Profile Throughout the 2000s, the Cuinis and El Mencho operated alongside a Sinaloa Cartel boss named Ignacio Coronel Villareal, alias “Nacho Coronel.” Nacho Coronel, who is the uncle of Emma Coronel, the last wife of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, alias “El Chapo,” was killed in a military raid in 2010, which officially severed the Milenio Cartel’s ties to the Sinaloa Cartel and allowed El Mencho to formally establish the CJNG, with Los Cuinis serving as its financial backbone.

González Valencia and El Mencho had three children: Rubén Oseguera González, Jessica Johanna Oseguera González, and Laisha Oseguera González. Jessica Johanna, alias “La Negra,” was convicted in 2021 for financial dealings with businesses sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for drug trafficking. And in 2024, Rubén, alias “El Menchito,” was convicted for trafficking cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States.

In 2018, González Valencia was arrested by the Mexican navy on money laundering charges in Zapopan, an exclusive part of Guadalajara, the state capital of Jalisco. The US government also intensified its campaign against other CJNG members in 2018, indicting and arresting key figures and driving El Mencho further underground. A day after González Valencia’s arrest, two Mexican Navy officers disappeared, with Mexican authorities alleging that her daughter Laisha planned the kidnappings in retaliation fo