The financial brain of the CJNG

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Reforma article

Subject Matter: Jose Maria Gonzalez Valencia, El Chema, Los Cuinis
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

These are the antecedents of Jose Maria Gonzalez Valencia, "El Chema", chief  financier of Los Cuinis, a criminal group linked to the CJNG.

Reporter: Reforma
Who is El Chema?
Officials have informed that Jose Maria, alias "El Chema", converted into the chief of Los Cuinis after the detention of his brother Abigael Gonzalez Valencia in 2015. At the moment of his capture in Fortaleza, Brazil, on 27th of December, "El Chema was using the alias Jafett Arias Becerra, and he is considered the financial brain of the CJNG. (Otis: his arrest was reported by our very own Chivis, see link)

"El Chema", is also known as "Chepa", has been considered for some years as a priority objective by both the Mexican and United States authorities, he allegedly has been involved in cocaine trafficking operations, as well as in the importation of precursor chemicals for more than a decade.

El Chema was detained in January of 1998 in Apatzingan, Michoacan, in an air conditioned heroin laboratory in the basement of a house. El Chema was also designated an in charge of alliances with Central and South American, as well as Asian and European drug traffickers, and as an intermediary with gangs dedicated to the trafficking of arms.

As well as trafficking of cocaine and money laundering on a grand scale, the criminal group of "El Chema", is also in charge of producing drugs in Colima and Michoacan, and he is accused of various attacks against security forces.

Jose Maria, El Chema was, together with his brother Abigael and Oscar Nava Valencia, El Lobo, a member of the first circle of capo Armando Valencia Cornelio, El Maradona, ex leader of the Milenio cartel and detained in 2013.

In the business of methamphetamine, El Chema through his criminal group operates under the command of Ruben Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, and as an intermediary for the acquisition of pharmaceutical since Zhenli Ye Gon was detained on 23rd of July of 2007, and who the PGR caught with more than 205 million dollars.

El Chema is the brother in law of El Mencho, leader of the CJNG, El Mencho is married to his sister, Rosalinda Gonzalez Valencia with whom he had 3 children, among them Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez, El Menchito.

Los Cuinis also has real estate, commercial and hotel investments in Guadalajara and the beaches of Jalisco, and according to Federal reports, under the command of El Chema, the criminal organization keeps all its money in Europe. (Otis: one would suspect a Swiss bank then).

Zetatijuana also offers information on El Chepa/El Chema

"La Chepa", who is also nicknamed "Santy", was located by the Brazilian police at the express request of the government of the United States of America, which followed him two years ago when he left Mexico to hide in various countries from Southamerica.

Before José González was arrested, his brothers were arrested: Abigael "El Cuini", on February 28, 2015, in Puerto Vallarta; Elvis, on January 5, 2016, in a hospital in Zapopan; Gerardo "El Lalo", on April 21 also next year, in the city of Carrasco, near Montevideo, in the Eastern Republic of Uruguay. Of them, Elvis was released in December 2016 from the maximum security criminal "Altiplano", in the State of Mexico.

José González Valencia was detained in a high-value tourist complex on the beach of Taíba, in Fortaleza, Brazil, where an arrest warrant issued by the Supreme Federal Court (STF) of that nation for him to be extradited to the American Union was filled out, where charges for drug trafficking and organized crime await him.

The preliminary information, provided to the press through a statement, refers that the Mexican did not resist police detention. He declared himself on vacation with his family from December 22, when he entered Amazonian lands, coming from Bolivia.

The investigations of the Brazilian Federal Police revealed that "La Chepa" had been living in the Bolivian country for two years, when he left Mexico to not return. At the time of his capture, he carried a credential in the name of Jafett Arias Becerra, a document issued by the Bolivian government. The arrested man was sent to a prison in Fortaleza, where he waits for the procedure to be carried out for his extradition.

Along with González Valencia, a surgeon and midwife, originally from Aguililla, Michoacán, named Rogelio Guízar Camorlinga "El Doctor", was also captured. In May they were appointed by the Attorney General's Office as in charge of the finances of the family and criminal organization, as well as those responsible for the operational and security structure in Michoacán and Guerrero, respectively.

According to information from the PGR, "La Chepa" took the place of his brother Abigael, when he was captured almost three years ago in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, and since then he was the negotiator of alliances with criminal organizations in Asia and Europe.

In Mexico, José González is mentioned in several preliminary investigations for crimes that occurred in different states, but in Jalisco he has an arrest warrant issued by a criminal judge of the common jurisdiction for the crime of homicide, committed on March 9, 2013, in Zapopan, to the detriment of the former Secretary of State Tourism, Jesús Álvarez Gallegos.

According to testimony of the hitman Jonathan García García, alias "John Perro", it was José González who transmitted the orders of his brother-in-law Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes "El Mencho", to kill Álvarez Gallegos "because the secretary (of Tourism) is washing money for the Templars ". The instruction, given on a Friday, indicated that "that secretary can not get through this weekend" and the order was fulfilled on Saturday, when the official left Casa Jalisco where he participated in a meeting with the governor of Jalisco.

Before the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel was formed, in 2010, the criminal organization "Los Cuinis" had been operating since the 1990s. "El Mencho" was one of the gunmen in the service of his brothers-in-law, among them "La Chepa".

The dawn of August 2, 2005, "La Chepa", "El Mencho", "El Cuini" and Edgar, another of the González Valencia, were saved from dying in an attack that was recorded in El Carril de Tonalá, where I made a palenque. Armed subjects arrived at the scene firing firearms and threw four fragmentation grenades. The balance was four dead and 28 injured, among them José González and Antonio Oseguera Cervantes "Tony Montana". One of the dead was Saúl Díaz Oseguera "El Cangrejo", cousin of Nemesio and Antonio.

The wounded and witnesses of the events were released, despite having armored vehicles and locating two AK-47 rifles at the site, since the Attorney General of Jalisco determined that it was the victims and not the perpetrators of the attack. Abigael "El Cuini" had hidden behind the identity of Luis Ángel González Valencia, but in February of this year he was arrested in Puerto Vallarta. The injuries of "La Chepa", in one arm, were not serious.

Categories: CJNG, El Chema, Los Cuinis