US offers $25 million reward targeting US citizen who reportedly leads Mexico's most powerful cartel

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.S. government on Wednesday offered a $25 million reward for information leading to the capture of Juan Carlos González, or "Pelón,” scaling up pressure on a U.S. citizen who has emerged as the figurehead of Mexico's most powerful cartel.

The reward was bumped up from $5 million. The Trump administration offered a total of $100 million in rewards for various leaders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG, and restricted the visas of family members and business associates of cartel members.

U.S. officials said the rewards, along with newly unsealed charges against five other high-ranking leaders, were aimed at crippling the organization’s leadership while President Donald Trump has ramped up pressure on Mexico and other Latin American nations to carry out his security agenda.

“These sophisticated organizations use violence and fear to maintain control over the importation of deadly narcotics in the United States, including fentanyl, cocaine, meth, and other illegal drugs. Their actions spread violence and death to our communities,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters in Washington.

CJNG is among eight Mexican cartels designated as a foreign terrorist organization. The group was dealt a blow in February when leader Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, or “El Mencho.” was killed by the Mexican military. The U.S. provided intelligence for the operation, which resulted in a burst in violence in the state of Jalisco.

González, Oseguera Cervantes’s stepson and a dual Mexican and U.S. citizen, is reported to have taken control of the cartel, which is involved in everything from avocado production to drug smuggling.

Wednesday's move comes a few weeks after the United States imposed sanctions against 50 people and companies linked with the cartel, including González. The sanctions froze assets and blocked U.S. financial transactions with those cited.

The cartel is considered the largest in Mexico, with a presence in 21 of its 32 states. Its operations have extended to several countries, including the United States.

Trump's administration has ramped up pressure on the government of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to crack down more heavily on cartels, even threatening military action against the groups.

Among those charged in the newly unsealed indictments are Oseguera Cervantes’ former son-in-law, Julio ​Alberto Castillo Rodriguez, and Hugo ​Gonzalo Mendoza Gaytan, whom authorities described as the former leader’s godson. All of the defendants are charged with drug trafficking and firearms offenses, officials said.

"This is a fight against CJNG that we are just beginning, and we will not back down," Terrance Cole, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, told reporters.

Associated Press reporter Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice, Wednesday, August 5, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Terry Cole, right, is joined by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, left, as he speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice, Wednesday, August 5, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice, Wednesday, August 5, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

FILE - A soldier stands guard by a charred vehicle after it was set on fire in Cointzio, Michoacán state, Mexico, Feb. 22, 2026, following the death of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Oseguera, also known as "El Mencho." (AP Photo/Armando Solis, File)

CEDAR CREST, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s attorney general sued the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday, accusing it of blocking the state from investigating sex crimes at Jeffrey Epstein’s sprawling ranch near Santa Fe.

The lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., said the department and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stonewalled New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s criminal investigation into Epstein and others, taking steps that “actively harms victims and undermines the public interest.”

The lawsuit seeking judicial intervention to force the federal government to turn over materials to New Mexico's investigators was filed the same day that the state released a report saying “those directly responsible for protecting New Mexicans relied on others to do their job,” including federal prosecutors in New York.

The federal prosecutors, though, never prioritized New Mexicans, focusing instead on Epstein’s misdeeds in New York, Palm Beach, Florida, and the Virgin Islands, while leaving Epstein’s offenses in New Mexico unexamined," the report said.

Meanwhile, according to the Washington lawsuit, Torrez and his senior prosecutors “have faced sustained resistance” to the kind of information-sharing that had occurred in the past between state and federal investigators.

In a statement, the Justice Department said it was not releasing some information the state requested because federal court orders ban disclosing “victim-identifying information carte blanche, and New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures.”

It said protecting victim privacy remains a top priority, though the Justice Department "remains available to assist New Mexico’s investigation consistent with the law and binding court orders.”

The lawsuit said the Justice Department and Blanche were hiding information about Epstein and his co-conspirators when New Mexico is one of the few jurisdictions that may still be able to hold Epstein's associates accountable or “provide some sense of justice to survivors.”

In a video conference call with reporters, Torrez said his office has made 10 separate requests for key information and has been ignored or denied.

“We have heard repeatedly they will cooperate and what our team has experienced is anything but cooperation,” Torrez said.

“Todd Blanche today with a stroke of a pen could grant us the access that he claimed,” Torrez said. “Instead they have decided to stonewall, to obstruct and to frankly conceal for whatever reason.”

Epstein took his own life in a federal jail in New York City in August 2019 after he was denied bail on sex trafficking charges lodged against him when he was arrested a month earlier.

His former girlfriend and close associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking charges at a trial in Manhattan, where some of the witness testimony alleged that Epstein and Maxwell had sexually abused women at the New Mexico ranch.

Epstein purchased his sprawling estate in Stanley, New Mexico, a sparsely populated ranching community about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Santa Fe, in 1993 from former Democratic Gov. Bruce King and built a hilltop mansion with a private airstrip and helipad.

The property was sold by Epstein’s estate in 2023 to the family of Don Huffines, a Republican who was recently appointed state comptroller in Texas. In a February social media post on X, Huffines said the property has been renamed San Rafael Ranch after a saint associated with healing and that his family plans to operate a Christian retreat there.

In December, the Justice Department started releasing investigative records pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Complaints quickly arose about shoddy redactions and too many sealed materials from accusers and members of Congress who fought to pass the transparency act. Records that were released, including photographs, interview transcripts, call logs, court records and other documents, were either already public or heavily blacked out, and many lacked necessary context.

AP writer Larry Neumeister in New York and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

FILE — This photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein on March 28, 2017. (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)

FILE - Audrey Strauss, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell during a news conference in New York on July 2, 2020. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)