A leader of one of the world's most dangerous drug cartels owned and operated a secret ranch in Riverside County, California — and the federal government is only now trying to seize it after years of inaction. That's the open border in a nutshell: foreign criminal networks planting flags in American communities while Washington sends your money everywhere except where it's actually needed.
Juan Carlos Valencia Gonzalez, 41, bought the Hemet ranch for just $250,000 when he was 26 and living in Orange County, the New York Post reported, citing Spanish-language outlet El País. Valencia isn't some low-level operative — he's the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the most violent trafficking organizations on the planet. He took over after his stepfather, Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera, was killed in a Mexican military operation roughly five months ago.
The ranch sits in a quiet valley surrounded by farmland and upscale homes. Signs on the fence warned of security cameras and guard dogs. The property was still being managed by Valencia's uncle, a federal enforcement source told El País. Roughly 209,000 square feet, the land has appreciated to nearly $700,000 in California's inflated housing market — a nice little asset for a narco-terrorist.
A horse trainer who rented the property for three years, paying $1,500 a month in cash, was told this month to get out. "I didn't ask questions because it's not a good idea," the tenant told El País, refusing to be identified. That's the voice of a man who understands what kind of people he was dealing with — even if federal authorities apparently didn't, or didn't care, for years.
Valencia comes from cartel royalty on both sides. His biological father, Armando Cornelio, founded the Milenio cartel in the 1970s. His mother, who remarried El Mencho, was part of the "Cuinis" gang — the financial arm of the Jalisco Cartel. Valencia himself rose to lead "Grupo Elite," the cartel's armed wing. The Department of Justice says he "organized numerous violent acts... in addition to manufacturing, transporting, and distributing tons of narcotics."
There's a $25 million reward on his head. He's a U.S. citizen. And he's still on the loose.
The DOJ finally filed to seize the property last month. That case is pending. Earlier this month, the feds announced new charges and rewards against Valencia and his associates, with officials declaring that "the American people gave us a mandate to keep this country safe, and we will not rest until it is fulfilled."
Fulfilled. The man bought a ranch in your country, ran it for over a decade under the nose of every three-letter agency in Washington, and the best they can do is a civil forfeiture filing. Meanwhile, billions flow overseas to defend other nations' borders.
The question isn't why the DOJ is finally acting. The question is what took so long — and how many more cartel outposts are sitting in American communities right now, untouched.
