The State Department offered a $25 million Rewards payment on Wednesday for information leading to the capture of Juan Carlos González. The figure was raised from $5 million as part of a broader $102 million campaign against Jalisco New Generation Cartel leaders.
Juan Carlos González and CJNG
González was born in Santa Ana, California, on Sept. 12, 1984, and is a U.S. citizen and a dual Mexican and U.S. citizen. The State Department said the effort was aimed at "crippling the organization's leadership."
The reward package also includes up to $15 million each for Audias Flores Silva, Gonzalo Mendoza Gaytán and Julio Alberto Castillo Rodríguez. It offers up to $10 million each for Ricardo Ruiz Velasco, Julio César Montero Pinzón and Carlos Andrés Rivera Varela, plus up to $2 million for Griselda Margarita Arredondo Pinzón.
February operation in Mexico
The campaign comes after Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes was killed by the Mexican military in February, with U.S. intelligence support. The February operation was followed by a burst in violence in Jalisco, and González is reported to have taken control of the cartel after that.
CJNG is among eight Mexican cartels designated as foreign terrorist organizations. The group is considered the largest in Mexico, has a presence in 21 of Mexico's 32 states, and its operations have extended into the U.S. The Trump administration has also increased pressure on the government of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to crack down more heavily on cartels.
Marco Rubio statement
Wednesday's move came a few weeks after the Trump administration slapped sanctions on 50 people and companies linked with the cartel. Those sanctions froze assets and blocked U.S. financial transactions with the people and companies cited.
In June, the U.S. Treasury announced a new bank alert targeting the cartel, and the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on two men and nine companies tied to a cartel-linked fuel theft ring. Marco Rubio said in a statement on Wednesday, "The United States is hunting down, dismantling, and destroying Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación."
The June sanctions involved transportation, financial services and real estate, and the targeted network was accused of generating tens of millions of dollars annually for the cartel while evading Mexican taxes. The reward increase now puts González at the center of the U.S. effort, while the next procedural step in the campaign was not laid out in the announcement.
