The heir to the throne of ‘El Mencho’ is a Calfornian man from Orange County and the feds say, as a U.S. citizen, that actually makes it harder for them to fight the cartels.

The Narco terrorist Nemesio Oseguara Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho,” was executed in a Mexican military operation on Feb. 22. Earlier this month, the late drug kingpin was buried in a gold coffin in Guadalajara, Mexico. 

Now, Mexico and US officials said his step-son, Juan Carlos Valencia Gonzalez, 41, is the most likely to ascend the throne of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The step-son, whose nicknames include “Baldy,” “Bimbo” and “R-3”,  is now seen as the person with the greatest legitimacy to be the leader of the cartel and ensure a peaceful transfer of power, Eduardo Guerrero, a Mexican security consultant, told WSJ.

A former top U.S. drug dealer, Margarito Flores, said it’s a matter of “pedigree.” Juan comes from drug-dealer royalty on both sides of the family, with his biological father Armando Cornelio the founder of the Milenio cartel in the 1970s. His mother remarried El Mencho and was part of the “Cuinis” gang, the financial branch of the Jalisco cartel.

Juan is described as “extremely violent,” per a recent report from the Mexican Attorney General‘s office.

Officials said they now face legal hurdles in directly targeting and collecting personal data on Gonzales because he enjoys constitutional protections which will make it harder to end the cartels.

The rules for surveilling Americans overseas would need to be signed off from the Attorney General and the U.S. would have to persuade a secret foreign intelligence court that the person was “acting as an agent of a foreign power,” per the report.

While the feds said these obstacles are surmountable, the hurdles could potentially slow down a fast moving operation.

And the same can’t be said for law enforcement agents who said they are limited by investigative tools on U.S. citizens and prohibited by Mexico to conduct “operations in the country.”

Oseguera Cervantes was tracked and killed after intelligence agencies were able to follow one of his lovers to a secluded resort compound. Mexico’s Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla said agents had identified a man close to the woman prior to Sunday’s raid.

The intelligence officers found she was taken to Tapalpa, a mountainside getaway community in Jalisco, where Oseguera and his men were located.

While the girlfriend eventually left the resort, El Mencho and his men remained holed up in the compound when the Mexican military deployed its special forces to take them out.

Once the troops got inside the Oseguera’s compound, heavily armed men fired at the soldiers, leading to a gunfight and chase in the woods near the resort that resulted in the death of four cartel members.

Three others were critically injured and died while being transported to a hospital in Mexico City, including Oseguera.

The report pointed out that similar actions against the step-son would be hindered if President Donald Trump carried through with his promises to take out heads of drug cartels in Mexico.

“Can the government kill a U.S. person overseas or even at home without a trial, if they are perceived to be a threat to the U.S.?” asked Steven Cash, former CIA official.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has refused offers by the U.S. to take lethal action against cartels on Mexican soil. 

El Mencho’s oldest son, also California-born, would’ve been the next likely one to lead the cartel after his father was killed, but he can’t because he’s rotting away for life in a Washington, D.C, federal prison after being sentenced last year for various drug trafficking offenses.

Cartel violence sparked by the killing has led to at least 70 other deaths across Mexico so far, The Post reported.

The California Post has reached out to the Department of Justice for further comment.