WASHINGTON D.C.
Jose Gonzalez-Valencia, aka Chepa, will be sentenced in April for international cocaine trafficking, officials stated.
In December 2017, Brazilian authorities arrested Gonzalez-Valencia, 47, at the request of the United States. He was extradited from Brazil to the U.S. in November 2021.
According to court documents, between 2006 and October 2016, Gonzalez-Valencia was a leader of the Los Cuinis, an international drug trafficking organization (DTO).
The drug organization was responsible for importing large quantities of cocaine from Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, and elsewhere into the United States, according to authorities.
As noted in court documents, Los Cuinis is closely aligned with the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), which is based in the State of Jalisco in Mexico.
Together, Los Cuinis and CJNG form one of Mexico’s largest, most dangerous, and prolific drug cartels.
They are responsible for trafficking significant quantities of illegal drugs into the United States and employing extreme violence to further that objective.
Gonzalez-Valencia is the brother of Los Cuinis leaders Abigael Gonzalez-Valencia and Gerardo Gonzalez-Valencia, and the brother-in-law of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, aka Mencho, the leader of CJNG.
“Gonzalez Valencia worked with Los Cuinis and the CJNG to bring thousands of kilos of drugs into the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“CJNG is responsible for vast quantities of deadly illegal drugs that are being distributed across the United States,” said Administrator Anne Milgram of the DEA.
Gonzalez-Valencia pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, knowing and intending that it would be imported into the United States.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 7, and faces up to life in prison.
his case is supported by the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).
The DEA Los Angeles Field Division is investigating the case.
Acting Assistant Deputy Chief Kaitlin Sahni and Trial Attorneys Kate Naseef and Kirk Handrich of the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section are prosecuting the case.