How did Ryan Wedding, the former Canadian Olympic snowboarder now turned international fugitive, manage to elude law enforcement for ten years in Mexico? Recent federal charges in California shed light on his sophisticated network of accomplices and strategies reminiscent of the Netflix series Narcos.
A grand jury indictment unveiled in Los Angeles has implicated cartel leader Edgar Aaron Vazquez Alvarado, who allegedly provided Wedding and his associates with a daily-changing code word to ensure drug shipments evaded police and military interference. Moreover, Vazquez reportedly supplied “authentic law enforcement credentials” that had been modified to include the names of Wedding and his accomplices, facilitating their passage through security checkpoints.
$500,000 US Entry Fee
According to U.S. prosecutors, Vazquez welcomed Wedding into an elite circle of organized crime figures, granting access to crucial information, including arrest warrants and ongoing investigations. The indictment disclosed that an initial initiation fee of $500,000 US was charged to Wedding, along with a recurring monthly fee of approximately $100,000 US.
Last week, Mexico’s Security Minister Omar García Harfuch announced that 42-year-old Vazquez, known as “The General,” had been slain during an operation involving Mexican security forces. His connections to Wedding had earlier raised alarms when the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned him and his businesses due to their ties to the Canadian fugitive.
Wedding, who is now 45, allegedly managed a drug-smuggling operation generating $1 billion US annually. He fled to Mexico around the time criminal charges were brought against him in Montreal in 2015. Arrested in January in Mexico, he currently faces U.S. charges related to murder and drug trafficking; he has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial in Los Angeles next year.
Suspect Allegedly Had Ties to Notorious Cartels
In the recent announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, “reportedly connected street gang member” Roberto Gomez was named as another critical figure in Wedding’s evasion. Gomez, who is also known by the aliases Fat Boy and Rooster, purportedly established connections to individuals with access to sensitive information from both Mexican and U.S. law enforcement agencies.
The prosecution alleges that Gomez maintained communications with leaders of the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels, two of Mexico’s most feared criminal organizations, classified as terrorist groups by U.S. and Canadian authorities. While Wedding was in hiding, FBI reports indicate he was also operating under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel, co-founded by the notorious Joaquín (El Chapo) Guzmán.
According to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, there were multiple attempts to apprehend Wedding during his years on the run, but each time he received warnings that allowed him to evade capture. Allegations suggest that Gomez supplied him with information to facilitate his activities, including support for drug shipment operations. One transaction involved Gomez negotiating a deal for 453.6 kilograms of methamphetamine for $550,000 US in cryptocurrency.
The charges against Vazquez and Gomez add to a series of law enforcement actions recently taken in connection with Wedding. The FBI revealed last week the arrest of a Mexican judge implicated in accepting a $2 million US bribe to secure the release of Wedding’s second-in-command, Andrew Clark.
On Wednesday, Mexican authorities plan to auction 61 rare high-performance motorcycles seized last year, valued at an estimated $40 million US, from properties linked to Wedding. Furthermore, the U.S. Treasury has announced sanctions against several Iranian-linked firms in Toronto and Vancouver accused of aiding Wedding in laundering billions in drug proceeds.
Adding to the complexity, another co-defendant, described by U.S. officials as the operator of an elite prostitution ring in Mexico, recently pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles to conspiracy to commit murder after being extradited from Colombia. Prosecutors claim Carmen Yelinet Valoyes Florez utilized her network to find a target associated with a murder plot involving an FBI witness.
In the intricate web of criminal enterprises surrounding Wedding, law enforcement is dealing with multiple layers of corruption and organized crime as they seek to unravel the full extent of his operations.
Report by Thomas Daigle, CBC News senior reporter covering the Ryan Wedding case. Contact him at thomas.daigle@cbc.ca.
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