TAPALPA, Mexico—An American citizen now appears to be in charge of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel, potentially complicating U.S. efforts to eradicate the narcotics trade here. No sooner was slain kingpin Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera buried in a golden coffin in early March, serenaded by popular ballads and surrounded by carloads of floral displays, than his California-born stepson began ascending to the throne of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Mexican and U.S. officials said. The rise of 41-year-old Juan Carlos Valencia González marks the formal crowning of the Valencia family dynasty from western Mexico at the head of the organization…

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