The U.S. is \u201cinflating\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s only recently heard of Wedding\u2019s name from news reports and social media posts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHis name has gone viral in these last few months, they say he\u2019s the new Chapo,\u201d said the operative, referring to the nickname of Joaqu\u00edn (El Chapo) Guzm\u00e1n Loera, one of the former leaders of the Sinaloa cartel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are inflating the news, they are inflating this person to put all the attention on him \u2026 I believe they probably know where he is and they\u2019re just letting this go and go and then they\u2019ll make it like it\u2019s huge news.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766142729_848_default.jpg\")
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)<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a $15-million reward offered by the U.S. State Department for the capture of Wedding, who\u2019s been a fugitive since 2015. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Search for information<\/p>\n
Seeking more information on Wedding\u2019s case, CBC News obtained an interview with a member of the cartel that\u2019s supposedly helping him stay hidden. CBC News is not revealing his name or which faction the operative belongs to for security reasons. <\/p>\n
The meeting, arranged through independent journalist Miguel Angel Vega, who is from the state of Sinaloa, was conducted in a safe house in Culiac\u00e1n. The city is the state capital of Sinaloa, which sits in northwestern Mexico with a coastline along the Pacific Ocean.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Culiac\u00e1n, 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\u2019s sons, Joaqu\u00edn Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez, kidnapped Ismael (El Mayo) Zambada Garc\u00eda and turned him over to the U.S. in July 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The conflict has left thousands dead and disappeared and forced the displacement of hundreds of families living in countryside villages.<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766142729_47_default.jpg\")
An armoured truck from the Sinaloa State Police rolls to a crime scene in Culiac\u00e1n on Dec. 10. (Jorge Barrera\/CBC)<\/p>\n
The operative told CBC News that he provides \u201csecurity\u201d for his faction. When asked if that meant he was a “sicario,” or a hitman, he said, \u201cmore or less, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The operative said he doubts Wedding could move that much cocaine on his own without some major local backing that understands \u201cthe operational flow of the infrastructure\u201d from South America to Mexico, which is the distribution hub that branches out to the U.S., Canada and Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I think it\u2019s too large of a job for a Canadian,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n
The operative, who claims to have been in the presence of both El Chapo and El Mayo, said he doesn\u2019t believe that the cartel is protecting Wedding because the organization is consumed by its fratricidal war.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think the Sinaloa cartel could be protecting him right now because the cartel is going through circumstances that could lead to its collapse,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cartel\u2019s internecine conflict has also triggered an increased presence from the Mexican military and federal police in Culiacan and the rest of the state.<\/p>\n
Not on National Guard’s Sinaloa radar![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766142729_588_default.jpg\")
A National Guard soldier keeps a watchful eye in the parking lot of a mall in Culiac\u00e1n, Sinaloa, on Dec. 13. (Jason Burles\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Maj.-Gen. Julices Juli\u00e1n Gonz\u00e1lez Calzada, who oversees Mexico\u2019s National Guard troops in Sinaloa, said the focus of his work is bringing peace back to the people of Culiacan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wedding is not on their radar, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs 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,\u201d said Gonz\u00e1lez Calzada.<\/p>\n
“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 Guzm\u00e1n has affected us here in Mexico, well, maybe they see it that way. I honestly have very little information about him.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s loads.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the United States, people have become more like thieves\u2026. In Canada, the people, the clients, are more high-end. They\u2019re people of a higher rank,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re people who work large numbers, they\u2019re capos.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. is \u201cinflating\u201d the image of Ryan Wedding to create a major news event the moment the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-355341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}