Who is “El 85,” the former partner and rival of “El Mencho” who could betray the CJNG in the US?

The name of Érick Valencia Salazar, known as “El 85,” appears today in the archives of the US justice system as one of the best-positioned pieces to uncover the secrets of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

After years of alliances and betrayals with his former partner and rival Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, leader of the four-letter cartel, Valencia is undergoing the most important judicial process of his life from a prison in Washington, D.C., where he forged a deal with federal prosecutors to avoid going to trial and become a cooperating witness.

Origins and First Criminal Alliances

Érick Valencia Salazar was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The US State Department identifies him by the names Saúl Ulloa Cuevas and Erick Valencia Cornelio, as well as the aliases 85 and Mono, and attributes two dates of his death. Possible birth dates: March 11, 1977, and November 19, 1982. Valencia forged his first criminal ties within the Milenio Cartel, a structure then commanded by Óscar Orlando Nava Valencia (“El Lobo”) and Juan Carlos Nava Valencia (“El Tigre”). There, he served as a lieutenant to Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, better known as Nacho Coronel.

The fall and assassination of Coronel in 2010 accelerated an internal fracture. The group split into two factions: on the one hand, Valencia, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (“El Mencho”), and Martín Arzola Ortega (“El 53”)—known as Los Torcidos—; on the other, Elpidio Mojarro Ramírez (“El Pilo”) and Víctor Manuel Torres García (“El Papirrín”) led “La Resistencia,” which allied itself with Los Zetas.