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]

The Milenio Cartel, or Cártel de los Valencia (Valencia family Cartel), was a Mexican criminal organization based in Michoacán. It relocated to Jalisco in the early 2000s. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel was born from the splintering of the Milenio Cartel.

History

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 poppy in Jalisco and Michoacan and began selling these drugs to bigger cartels. By the mid 1990s they had close connections with Colombian traffickers like Fabio Ochoa Vásquez of the Medellin cartel and by the early 2000s they were working with synthetic drugs provided by Zhenli Ye Gon. By this time the cartel had taken several hits from the government, like the 2003 capture of their leader Armando Valencia Cornelio. In order to protect their structure the new leader, Óscar Orlando Nava Valencia, associated with the Sinaloa cartel, the Milenio cartel became a branch of what was known as the Sinaloa federation, under the direct orders of Ignacio Coronel Villarreal.[3][4][5][6][7]

Luis Valencia Valencia and Óscar Nava Valencia took control of the cartel after the arrest of Armando Valencia Cornelio on August 15, 2003.[8] The cartel operated in at least six Mexican states: Michoacán, Colima, Jalisco, Mexico City, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas, where it produced marijuana and heroin. Another relative and close associate was Oscar Nava Valencia.

On October 28, 2009, Oscar Nava Valencia (El Lobo) was captured after a gun battle with Mexican Army troops in the municipality of Tlajomulco de Zuniga, Jalisco. Oscar Nava and his brother, Juan Nava Valencia, were responsible for the planning and smuggling of cocaine shipments from South and Central America to the port of Manzanillo, Colima from where it was smuggled into the United States.[9]

After the arrest of Oscar Nava Valencia, his brother Juan Carlos 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

With the 2009 capture of Óscar Nava Valencia, leader of the Milenio cartel, and the death of Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, of the Sinaloa cartel federation, a power vacuum emerged. The Milenio broke into smaller factions, most notably La Resistencia, headed by Ramiro Pozos El Molca, and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), headed by Nemesio Oseguera El Mencho, and started a turf war for the control of the region.[10][11][12][13][14]

La Resistencia formed a brief alliance with Los Zetas, the CJNG reunited with the Sinaloa cartel, and other remnants of the milenio that splintered from the Sinaloa Cartel[1] went independent and reached a working agreement with La Familia Michoacana.[15] However, when la Familia was disbanded in 2011,[16][17] the Milenio Cartel relocated to Guadalajara and forged a loose alliance with a faction of Los Zetas Cartel.[2] Although some Valencia/Milenio factions were at war with the CJNG, the core of the Valencia family is related with El Mencho, the CJNG leader, due to El Mencho's wife being a Valencia, the remnants of the Milenio gang currently form under the CJNG wing known as "Los Cuinis".

On January 29, 2011, Oscar 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.[18]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "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. 1 2 3 "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. ↑ Getty Images. "Murió uno de los fundadores del cártel de Medellín". Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Los Valencia, los Milenio, la Nueva Generación". Excélsior. March 13, 2012. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Detiene PGR al narcotraficante Armando Valencia". August 16, 2003. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  6. ↑ "El Universal - Los Estados - Ejecutan a hermano del líder del cártel de los Valencia". El Universal. September 2, 2015. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  7. ↑ "El camino de "El Lobo"". EL INFORMADOR. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  8. ↑ Goodson, H. Nelson (February 8, 2010). "Milenio Cartel Drug Lord Sentenced to 47 Years in a Mexican Prison". Hispanic News Network. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
  9. 1 2 3 Gerardo. ""El Lobo" extradited to the U.S." Borderland Beat. 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 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. ↑ Vega, Aurora (November 2, 2011). "Templarios dominan Michoacán, donde habrá elecciones el día 13". Excelsior (in Spanish). Retrieved February 10, 2012.
  17. ↑ "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.
  18. ↑ "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.
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