Behind the financial side of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), there are “Los Cuinis”, who, more than just a group, are a family baptized with the name of a small squirrel called “cuinique,” known for its ability to reproduce. They are the González Valencias, a clan of 18 brothers – some say 12 – who form the financial and business arm of the criminal group led by Nemesio Oseguera, “El Mencho.”
Rosalinda Gonzalez Valencia, wife of “Mencho”, recently detained in Zapopan, Jalisco, and designated as “financial operator” of the CJNG belongs to los “Cuinis.”
She’s not the only one. There are 7 sisters identified by the authorities as covert perpetrators of the CJNG’s businesses. They are Noemí, Berenice, Marisa, Erika, María Elena, Abigail, and Estela who have taken an important role in the administration of the illicit business of the criminal group, especially after the arrest of five of their brothers: Ulises, Elvis, José, Abigael and now Rosalinda González Valencia.
She’s not the only one. There are 7 sisters identified by the authorities as covert perpetrators of the CJNG’s businesses. They are Noemí, Berenice, Marisa, Erika, María Elena, Abigail, and Estela who have taken an important role in the administration of the illicit business of the criminal group, especially after the arrest of five of their brothers: Ulises, Elvis, José, Abigael and now Rosalinda González Valencia.
The Mexican authorities attribute to “Los Cuinis” businesses such as beauty and rejuvenation clinics, hotels, restaurants, and markets, among others. They are considered as one of the richest criminal organizations in Mexico, closely tied with the CJNG.
Although their last name appears below ” El Mencho” in the structure of the CJNG, its weight in the organization is no less important now under the orders of Arnulfo, and behind brothers Edgar, Mauricio, Gerardo and Luis Ángel, all still free.
Precisely because of the economic power they have accumulated, in October 2016 the US Treasury Department included 7 of the “Cuinis” in the list of international drug traffickers that its Office of Control of Foreigners’ Assets (OFAC) produces.
Specialists are struck by the fact that the “Cuinis” came so late to this “black list” of US drug traffickers, if we consider that the authorities have been tracking them for two decades.
The names of Nemesio Oseguera, his brother Antonio Oseguera, and his brothers-in-law Abigael, Arnulfo, Edgar, Elvis, Marisa Ivette and Noemi appeared on the list recently. The first name was identified as the leader of the Cuinis, who along with the CJNG is considered among the “most prolific and violent group in the world.”
The Origin of the Dynasty
The González Valencias, originally from Michoacán, are the family branch of the CJNG, in addition to its financial base.
Their history goes back to the seventies, when the patriarch of the family, Armando Valencia Cornelio, “El Maradona”, founded the organization known as the Milenio Cartel.
At the beginning they were only dedicated to planting marijuana, but in the nineties they moved towards the manufacture of synthetic drugs -they were the first to traffic them- the transfer of cocaine to the United States and the planting of poppies.
Harassed by Los Zetas, who began to dispute the territory between 2003 and 2004, the entire Valencia clan had to flee from Michoacán.
Then it was believed that the authorities had defeated the Valencias and that the Milenio Cartel had been erased from the map of Mexican drug trafficking. This was not the case. “Los Cuinis”, with everything including their criminal tradition, moved towards Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit and Guanajuato, where they created a defense cell with well-trained assassins. At the head of group was a young man well known to them from their youth in Michoacán: Nemesio Oseguera, “El Mencho.”
The Blood Alliance
El “Mencho” became a sicario and narco with the Valencias. Since a young age he worked with them as a vigilante in avocado fields, later becoming their operator for the traffic of marijuana and poppy from the municipality of Aguililla, Michoacán, and later he even looked after the patriarch El Maradona, as boss of security.
Before coming close with the inner Valencia circle though, El Mencho went to the United States and there began to traffic the group’s synthetic drugs, at Abigael González Valencia’s side, the “Cuini” or the “Cachetes”, who would be identified as the leader of ” Los Cuinis.”
By then Nemesio already knew Rosalinda and married her as soon as he returned to Mexico, when he became a policeman in Cabo Corrientes and Tomatlán, municipalities of Jalisco.
It was when he left the police corporation that he became the head of security for the Patriarch “Maradona” -Armando Valencia- and right hand man to Erik Valencia Salazar.
The versions suggest that together they seized and transformed the Milenio Cartel. “On May 10, 2009, clashes between the Milenio Cartel and the people of Nemesio Oseguera and Erik Valencia began, and a month later the Jalisco New Generation Cartel was announced,” Ramiro Pozos, “El Molca” leader of La Resistencia, a split of the Millennium Cartel, told authorities.
With the financial support of the Gonzalez Valencias – now his political family – and his proven firepower, “El Mencho” first joined the group Matazetas, in 2011. With them he fought off Los Zetas in the Bajío region and snatched the Gulf with their same strategies: a very strict command structure, with well-defined levels and degrees, very solid loyalties who is now said to have been trained by Colombian paramilitary forces and others foreign countries, which has allowed it to spread throughout the country.
The Casualties
The blood alliance between “Los Cuinis” and the CJNG has not been enough to avoid arrests of the González Valencias, who have not been apprehended in safe houses or hidden, but in Mexican tourist areas and abroad, contrasting with a widespread opinion concerning their low profile.
Among the “Cuinis” arrested is Abigael, who was surprised by authorities in a restaurant in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, on March 28, 2015. Elvis was detained in a hospital after suffering a road accident in Zapopan, Jalisco, January 3, 2016
Gerardo was arrested on April 21, 2016, in Uruguay, along with 10 other members of the organization, and José, “El Chema” or “Chepa”, was arrested on December 27, 2017 in Fortaleza, Brazil.
The last was Rosalinda, the wife of El “Mencho”, who was surprised when leaving a convenience store in Zapopan , Jalisco.
But from the “Cuinis” dynasty there are still 13 brothers – or 7 if there are 12 total – all with money, power, and support from the most violent criminal group in the country: the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
