The United States on Wednesday announced a $25 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Juan Carlos González, known as “Pelón,” intensifying pressure on the American citizen who has risen to become figurehead of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organization, reports AP.
The bounty marks a fivefold increase from the previous $5 million offer. It forms part of a package worth $100 million in total rewards announced by the Trump administration for various leaders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known as CJNG, alongside new visa restrictions targeting family members and business associates of cartel figures.
US officials said the rewards, combined with newly unsealed charges against five other senior cartel leaders, were designed to dismantle the organisation’s leadership structure as President Donald Trump continues to press Mexico and other Latin American governments to pursue his security agenda.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters in Washington that such organisations relied on violence and intimidation to control the smuggling of deadly narcotics into the United States, including fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine, and that their activities brought bloodshed and death to American communities.
CJNG is one of eight Mexican cartels designated by Washington as a foreign terrorist organisation. The group suffered a major setback in February when its leader, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, widely known as “El Mencho,” was killed by the Mexican military in an operation for which the US supplied intelligence.
The raid triggered a surge in violence across the state of Jalisco. González, who is Oseguera Cervantes’s stepson and holds dual Mexican and US nationality, is reported to have since taken the reins of the cartel, an organisation with interests spanning avocado production to drug trafficking.
Wednesday’s announcement follows sanctions imposed by Washington just weeks earlier against 50 individuals and companies with ties to the cartel, including González himself. Those measures froze assets and barred financial dealings with the individuals and firms named.
CJNG is regarded as Mexico’s largest cartel, maintaining a presence in 21 of the country’s 32 states, with operations extending into several other nations, including the United States.
The Trump administration has stepped up pressure on the government of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to intensify its crackdown on cartels, going as far as to threaten military action against the groups.
Among those named in the newly unsealed indictments are Julio Alberto Castillo Rodriguez, Oseguera Cervantes’s former son-in-law, and Hugo Gonzalo Mendoza Gaytan, described by officials as the late leader’s godson. All of the defendants face charges of drug trafficking and firearms offences, according to prosecutors.
Terrance Cole, head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told reporters: “This is a fight against CJNG that we are just beginning, and we will not back down.”
