Ryan Wedding’s image as alleged drug kingpin inflated by U.S., says Sinaloa cartel operative
The U.S. is “inflating” the image of Ryan Wedding to create a major news event the moment the alleged cocaine kingpin is finally taken down, says an operative with the Mexican cartel that law enforcement believes is protecting the former Canadian Olympian.
In an interview with CBC News in northwestern Mexico, the operative with the Sinaloa cartel said that his organization has dealt with Canadian narcotics customers for more than two decades, but he’s only recently heard of Wedding’s name from news reports and social media posts.
“His name has gone viral in these last few months, they say he’s the new Chapo,” said the operative, referring to the nickname of Joaquín (El Chapo) Guzmán Loera, one of the former leaders of the Sinaloa cartel.
“They are inflating the news, they are inflating this person to put all the attention on him … I believe they probably know where he is and they’re just letting this go and go and then they’ll make it like it’s huge news.”
Two photos of Wedding were released recently: one published by the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, left, with a shaved head, while another photo, right, is believed to have been taken in Mexico last summer, according to the FBI. (U.S. Embassy in Mexico, FBI Los Angless/X)
The U.S. Justice Department says it believes that Wedding, 44, lives in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most prominent transnational crime groups in the world.
FBI director Kash Patel has called Wedding the new El Chapo. The former Sinaloa cartel leader was extradited from Mexico to the U.S. in 2017 and remains in prison. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has also said that Wedding runs an organization that has moved many tonnes of cocaine from Mexico into the U.S. and Canada.
There’s a $15-million reward offered by the U.S. State Department for the capture of Wedding, who’s been a fugitive since 2015.
Earlier this year, the FBI added Wedding, who competed for Canada as a snowboarder at the 2002 Olympic Games in Utah, to its list of 10 most-wanted fugitives.
Search for information
Seeking more information on Wedding’s case, CBC News obtained an interview with a member of the cartel that’s supposedly helping him stay hidden. CBC News is not revealing his name or which faction the operative belongs to for security reasons.
The meeting, arranged through independent journalist Miguel Angel Vega, who is from the state of Sinaloa, was conducted in a safe house in Culiacán. The city is the state capital of Sinaloa, which sits in northwestern Mexico with a coastline along the Pacific Ocean.
Culiacán, known as the cradle of the Sinaloa cartel, is part of the battlefield between two main cartel factions that have been warring since one of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, kidnapped Ismael (El Mayo) Zambada García and turned him over to the U.S. in July 2024.
The conflict has left thousands dead and disappeared and forced the displacement of hundreds of families living in countryside villages.
An armoured truck from the Sinaloa State Police rolls to a crime scene in Culiacán on Dec. 10. (Jorge Barrera/CBC)
The operative told CBC News that he provides “security” for his faction. When asked if that meant he was a “sicario,” or a hitman, he said, “more or less, yes.”
In a recent media conference, Bondi said that Wedding heads an organization that’s moved 60 tonnes of cocaine in a single year into Los Angeles from Mexico.
The operative said he doubts Wedding could move that much cocaine on his own without some major local backing that understands “the operational flow of the infrastructure” from South America to Mexico, which is the distribution hub that branches out to the U.S., Canada and Europe.
“Personally, I think it’s too large of a job for a Canadian,” he said.
The operative, who claims to have been in the presence of both El Chapo and El Mayo, said he doesn’t believe that the cartel is protecting Wedding because the organization is consumed by its fratricidal war.
“I don’t think the Sinaloa cartel could be protecting him right now because the cartel is going through circumstances that could lead to its collapse,” he said.
The cartel’s internecine conflict has also triggered an increased presence from the Mexican military and federal police in Culiacan and the rest of the state.
Not on National Guard’s Sinaloa radar
A National Guard soldier keeps a watchful eye in the parking lot of a mall in Culiacán, Sinaloa, on Dec. 13. (Jason Burles/CBC)
Maj.-Gen. Julices Julián González Calzada, who oversees Mexico’s National Guard troops in Sinaloa, said the focus of his work is bringing peace back to the people of Culiacan.
Wedding is not on their radar, he said.
“As for whether we are conducting any followup or have anything specific regarding [Wedding] here in the state of Sinaloa, I haven’t had anything like that, nor do I have any information regarding the matter,” said González Calzada.
“The perception [of Wedding] comes from the people of Canada, and if they consider that this person affects them the way Pablo Escobar did, or the way Chapo Guzmán has affected us here in Mexico, well, maybe they see it that way. I honestly have very little information about him.”
The Sinaloa cartel has had a presence in Canada for at least 25 years and is involved in everything from cocaine to methamphetamine and fentanyl trafficking, said the cartel operative.
He said business is profitable in Canada despite the weak dollar because drug products fetch a higher price due the distance they travel. He said the trade is in turmoil in the U.S. because organized crime groups are regularly stealing each other’s loads.
“In the United States, people have become more like thieves…. In Canada, the people, the clients, are more high-end. They’re people of a higher rank,” he said.
“They’re people who work large numbers, they’re capos.”
