Óscar Nava Valencia 'El Lobo' Released From Prison In the U.S.

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

El Lobo' coordinated the shipment and transportation of tons of cocaine from Central and South America to Mexico.

Nava Valencia began his criminal career in the 1990s.

After negotiating with US authorities and ratting out rivals and former allies - including former Secretary of Public Security Genaro Garcia Luna - Oscar Nava Valencia, the former leader of the Los Valencia or Milenio Cartel, was released from prison in the United States after 12 years of incarceration.

Judicial documents to which MILENIO had access reveal that El Lobo left prison on November 27, after having his sentence reduced twice.

In addition, it is likely that Nava Valencia will remain in the United States as part of the protected witness program, along with his wife and children, who are already in that country; according to the agreement signed with the Department of Justice, El Lobo will remain at the disposal of the authorities to cooperate in future cases, as he did with Genaro García Luna and one of Los Cuinis.

El Lobo's path from prison to freedom was based on his ability to put his enemies and former associates in Washington's crosshairs. It was on June 15, 2012 when he signed one of the best deals of his life: he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and thus avoided another charge of direct cocaine distribution in the United States. He opened the way to judicial cooperation as a snitch.

As a result, on January 7, 2014, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison, but then his cooperation began to pay off: he obtained the benefit of a sentence reduction to 200 months, just over 16 years, and the year he spent in prison in Mexico before being extradited was taken into account.

On November 15, MILENIO reported that a new motion for a sentence reduction had been filed, without knowing if it was on behalf of the defense or the prosecution, but the request has already borne fruit. His release, scheduled for April 2024, was brought forward to November 2023.

As MILENIO has been able to confirm, since he was arrested in Mexico, Nava Valencia knew he would become a whistleblower for the U.S. authorities. However, in order not to arouse suspicion among the Milenio Cartel, he tried to avoid extradition without much effort. Thus, in January 2011, he was in the hands of the United States.

"He made the decision while he was in Mexico that he was going to cooperate with the US government as much as possible," El Lobo's lawyers detailed during his 2014 sentencing hearing.

His defense pushed for his two sentence reductions on the grounds that he had been a high-profile and relevant cooperating witness, but also that he was remorseful for what he had done. He even claimed that in prison he had taken all the Bible courses available to him and went to mass.

"All of that he has done with the goal of becoming a better man and assuming that, when he is released, he will assume the role as head of his family, who will help him in improving his life and also to live a good life," his defense assured when he was first sentenced.

The origins of the capo

Originally from Michoacán, he was the leader of Los Valencia or the Milenio Cartel since 2003, following the arrest of his uncle Armando Valencia Cornelio, who founded the organization in the 1990s. He was a close operator of Ignacio Coronel, and remained on Chapo Guzman's side after the breakup of the Sinaloa Federation.

El Lobo coordinated the shipment and transportation of tons of cocaine arriving from Central and South America to Mexico to the port of Manzanillo, Colima, and then to the United States until October 28, 2009, when he was arrested in a federal operation in Guadalajara, Jalisco.

After his fall in 2009, Erick Valencia Salazar, El 85, was left in charge of the cartel, which fractured into two factions, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Resistance. The rest is history. Today, the CJNG disputes control of the trafficking of synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine and fentanyl with the Sinaloa Cartel.

El Lobo was part of high-profile cases as a collaborator. One of them was testifying against former Public Security Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna earlier this year in Brooklyn, New York.

During the trial, in front of the former chief of police of the Calderon era, El Lobo assured that he witnessed at least three meetings between Garcia Luna and criminal leaders. First in 2006 to receive $2.5 million, collected by Arturo Beltran Leyva, El Barbas, during the existence of the Sinaloa Federation, to maintain greater control of the territories.

In 2007, in Cuernavaca, when he was summoned by El Barbas to give explanations for the seizure of a shipment of cocaine belonging to the Beltran Leyvas.

And in 2008, in a car wash in Guadalajara, when El Lobo personally said he paid 3 million pesos to García Luna and his right-hand man, Luis Cárdenas Palomino, head of the Police Intelligence division of the now defunct Federal Police, for protection.

In another case, in Washington, he testified against Gerardo González Valencia, one of the leaders of Los Cuinis. He told how, together with his brothers José and Abigael, they operated the trafficking of tons of cocaine provided by Colombian sources. In addition, as MILENIO has been able to find out, he was part of the construction of a criminal case in Chicago, Illinois, although it is not known precisely which one.

Nava Valencia is free, waiting to collaborate against the many targets he has snitched on since arriving in the United States, where the Justice Department is actively working to build new drug trafficking cases, with the help of El Lobo's howl.

Milenio