Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, August 6, 2026 – U.S. authorities have placed a reward of up to $10 million on Carlos Andrés Rivera Varela, alias “La Firma,” dramatically escalating efforts to capture an alleged senior Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación figure whom American investigators have linked to Puerto Vallarta, timeshare fraud, and the cartel’s armed enforcement structure.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the reward Wednesday as part of more than $100 million in reward offers covering eight alleged CJNG leaders and associates. The State Department said up to $10 million could be paid for information leading to Rivera Varela’s arrest or conviction.
The figure represents a major escalation. When Vallarta Daily reported Rivera Varela’s addition to the FBI wanted list in December 2025, the FBI offered up to $245,000. The new State Department ceiling is more than 40 times that amount.
There is an important distinction in the federal records. The FBI’s existing wanted poster still displays the earlier $245,000 offer, while Wednesday’s Justice Department announcement lists the new State Department reward at up to $10 million. The latest announcement does not say Rivera Varela has been located, and neither the Justice Department notice nor the FBI wanted material states that he is currently in Puerto Vallarta.
The reward was accompanied by another development that substantially expands the public case against him. U.S. prosecutors have now disclosed separate criminal charges in the District of Columbia alleging that Rivera Varela and Julio César Montero Pinzón, alias “El Tarjetas,” founded and led an armed CJNG unit known as Grupo Elite under orders from the cartel’s former leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho.”
Justice Department filings allege that the organization operated training camps and that more than 1,000 personnel reported through the structure led by Rivera Varela and Montero Pinzón. Prosecutors also accuse the two men of participating in long-running drug-trafficking conspiracies and allege the use of military-style firearms and destructive weapons. The five defendants named in the newly public District of Columbia cases could face up to two consecutive life sentences if convicted.
Those allegations are separate from the federal case that first put Rivera Varela’s alleged role in the Puerto Vallarta timeshare-fraud business into unusually detailed public view.
A 2025 superseding indictment in federal court in New York alleges that CJNG asserted control over an existing timeshare fraud operation in Jalisco around 2012 and began demanding a share of the monthly profits. Prosecutors allege proceeds were distributed to Rivera Varela or at his direction.
The indictment describes a layered operation in which timeshare owners were approached with bogus sale or rental deals and instructed to pay advance fees or taxes. Some victims were later contacted again by people posing as attorneys who claimed they could recover the lost money. A third variation allegedly involved impersonators claiming to represent Mexican or U.S. government agencies.
U.S. investigators also allege that Rivera Varela and Montero Pinzón shifted some proceeds into cryptocurrency after Washington designated CJNG a Foreign Terrorist Organization in February 2025. The New York case charges Rivera Varela with money-laundering conspiracy and offenses involving material support to a designated terrorist organization.
The scale of the alleged fraud has made Puerto Vallarta a recurring focus of U.S. financial investigations. The Treasury Department said last year that nearly 6,000 U.S. victims reported close to $300 million in losses tied to Mexican timeshare schemes between 2019 and 2023. Nearly 900 additional complaints involving more than $50 million in reported losses were recorded in 2024.
That enforcement campaign has already reached businesses and individuals in the Bay Area. In August 2025, Vallarta Daily reported that U.S. sanctions were imposed against another Puerto Vallarta-linked timeshare network, as the Treasury targeted four people and 13 companies based in or near the city.
Rivera Varela had been on Washington’s radar even earlier. A 2022 Treasury action identified him and Francisco Javier Gudiño Haro, alias “La Gallina,” as leaders of a Puerto Vallarta-based CJNG enforcement group and linked them to Gonzalo Mendoza Gaytán, alias “El Sapo,” another senior figure associated with the city.
Wednesday’s announcement does not describe a new security operation in Puerto Vallarta or announce any change in local public-safety guidance. Instead, it raises the financial incentive tied to Rivera Varela’s capture while adding another federal criminal case to the allegations already pending against him.
Rivera Varela has not been convicted of the allegations described in the U.S. cases. He remains a fugitive, and the FBI describes him as armed and extremely dangerous. Tips related to Rivera Varela, Montero Pinzón and Griselda Margarita Arredondo Pinzón can be submitted through the FBI’s dedicated CJNG tip portal.
