Los Cuinis' Gerardo "Lalo" Gonzalez-Valencia Pleaded Guilty to Cocaine Trafficking in the US

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Gonzalez-Valencia pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine, knowing and intending that it would be imported into the United States. 

Gerardo Gonzalez-Valencia, also known as "Lalo," has pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking in the United States. According to court documents, between 2003 and April 2016, Gonzalez-Valencia was one of the leaders of Los Cuinis, an international drug trafficking organization responsible for importing large quantities of cocaine from South America to Mexico, and elsewhere into the United States. 

In April 2016, Uruguayan authorities arrested Gonzalez-Valencia at the request of the United States. He was extradited from Uruguay to the United States in May 2020. Gerardo González Valencia had been sentenced to prison by a court in Uruguay for laundering $10 million before being extradited.

"Lalo" Gonzalez-Valencia is the brother of Los Cuinis leaders Abigael Gonzalez-Valencia and Jose Gonzalez-Valencia, and the brother-in-law of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, "El Mencho," the leader of CJNG. Jose Gonzalez-Valencia pleaded guilty to international cocaine trafficking in the District of Columbia earlier this month after being extradited in 2021.

Los Cuinis is closely aligned with the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), based in the State of Jalisco in Mexico. Together, Los Cuinis and CJNG form one of Mexico's largest, most dangerous, and most prolific drug cartels.

One of the events attributed to Gerardo and Abigael, through a witness who cooperated with the authorities, was the coordination between the two of them to send a submarine full of cocaine from an unknown place to Mexico, and later an attempt was made to send by the same means to the United States. The US Coast Guard seized the ship and the cocaine on board was the basis of the charges against "Lalo"

Gonzalez-Valencia is scheduled to be sentenced on April 6, 2023, and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Sources DOJ, Milenio