Bay Area Man Who Co-Founded 'Ruthless' Mexican Cartel Admits To Drug Charges

SANTA CLARA, CA — A 49-year-old Bay Area man who co-founded the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, one of the most prolific cartels in the world, has pleaded guilty to drug charges, prosecutors said.

Santa Clara resident Erick Valencia-Salazar, known as “El 85," now faces anywhere from 10 years to life in federal prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to one count of conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine for unlawful importation into

“Erick Valencia-Salazar helped build CJNG into a ruthless organization that uses violence as a business model — murdering for control in Mexico while flooding the United States with poison,” DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said in statement Tuesday, adding that CJNG is not only involved in trafficking drugs, but the spread of "violence, fear, and instability on both sides of the border."

Salazar's life in the drug trade can be traced back to his days as a member of the Milenio Cartel, according to prosecutors, another Mexican drug trafficking organization based in the southwest part of Mexico.

There, Valencia-Salazar's job was to keep the other cartel members armed with pistols and rifles, including AK-47s and AR-15s, that would be used in shootouts with other rival cartels, prosecutors said.

But the Milenio Cartel eventually fell, and out of it came the faction that would eventually become the drug trafficking powerhouse that is CJNG.

Valencia-Salazar, along with the late Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, also known as "El Mencho,"co-founded the CJNG.

During this time, the 49-year-old recruited new members and used information about rival cartels to locate and kill enemies to gain control of the drug trade in several parts of Mexico, authorities said.

Valencia-Salazar was eventually arrested and transferred into United States custody along with 28 other defendants accused of contributing to the drug trade.

"Erick Valencia-Salazar co-founded the CJNG, one of the most violent drug trafficking organizations in Mexico, which shipped tons of cocaine into the United States and inflicted immeasurable damage on our country," Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said. "Today’s conviction is yet another example of the Criminal Division’s efforts in disrupting and dismantling transnational drug trafficking organizations that harm the American people."

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