Fake police ID and $500K fee: how cartel boss shielded Ryan Wedding in Mexico
New U.S. charges detail how slain cartel leader 'The General' gave fugitive snowboarder Ryan Wedding fake credentials and insider tips to evade capture.
Cartel boss gave Wedding fake police credentials and daily code words to slip through checkpoints
A slain Mexican cartel leader supplied Canadian fugitive Ryan Wedding with manipulated law enforcement identification and rotating daily code words that allowed cocaine shipments — and Wedding himself — to pass unchallenged through security checkpoints in Mexico, according to U.S. federal charges unsealed in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
cbc.ca reports that the charges stem from a grand jury indictment naming Edgar Aaron Vazquez Alvarado, known as "The General," as one of Wedding's key protectors. Vazquez was fatally shot last week in an operation involving Mexican security forces, Mexico's Security Minister Omar García Harfuch announced. He was 42.
According to the indictment, Vazquez provided Wedding and co-conspirators with "authentic law enforcement credentials" altered to carry their own names, enabling them to move freely through checkpoints. He also issued a code word — changed almost daily — that prevented drug loads from being intercepted by Mexican police and military.
That protection came at a price. Prosecutors allege Vazquez charged Wedding a one-time initiation fee of $500,000 US to join a closed circle of organized crime leaders who received sensitive intelligence, including details of arrest warrants and active investigations. Members were also billed an average of $100,000 US per month.
Vazquez had first been publicly linked to Wedding a year ago, when the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against him and his companies over their ties to the Canadian. Treasury identified Vazquez as a former Mexican law enforcement officer with high-level connections inside security institutions.
Street gang member named as second key facilitator
Tuesday's announcement also named Roberto Gomez — aliases "Fat Boy" and "Rooster" — as a separate facilitator in Wedding's decade on the run. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles described the 51-year-old former L.A. resident as a reputed street gang member who cultivated relationships with people holding access to sensitive information from both Mexican and U.S. law enforcement agencies.
Gomez is also said to have maintained contact with leadership of the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels, two of Mexico's most notorious criminal organizations, both designated as terrorist groups by the United States and Canada.
Prosecutors allege Gomez passed Wedding tip-offs that allowed him to stay ahead of capture attempts, and helped supply him with bulk drug shipments. In one instance, Gomez allegedly attempted to broker the sale of 453.6 kilograms of methamphetamine to Wedding for $550,000 US in cryptocurrency. Gomez is listed as a fugitive believed to be living in Mexico and faces six charges, including drug offences and one count of attempting to transact with a "specially designated narcotics trafficker."
"There were multiple attempts to capture Mr. Wedding, and in each of those attempts we were undermined," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli told CBC News last week. "He either was tipped off or was given a warning, and was somehow always able to evade us, just barely … and so it was our belief that he was getting help."
Wedding: Olympic snowboarder to international fugitive
Wedding, 45, was born in Thunder Bay, Ont. The FBI says he fled to Mexico around 2015, when he faced criminal charges in Montreal. U.S. authorities allege he ran a drug-smuggling network that generated $1 billion US annually and was protected for years by the Sinaloa Cartel — co-founded by Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.
Also known as Public Enemy, Wedding was arrested in Mexico in January and remains in U.S. custody. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and drug trafficking and is scheduled to stand trial in Los Angeles next year. His trial has previously been delayed to 2027, described by the court as an "unusual and complex" case.
Wider enforcement activity surrounds the case
The charges against Vazquez and Gomez are part of a broader wave of legal action in recent days connected to the Wedding investigation.
The FBI announced last week the arrest in Colombia of a Mexican judge accused of accepting $2 million US in bribes to release Wedding's alleged second-in-command, Andrew Clark. Clark himself was arrested in Mexico in October 2024 in a joint operation involving Interpol and the Mexican navy.
Mexican authorities are expected to auction off 61 rare and high-performance motorcycles seized from properties linked to Wedding; the FBI previously estimated the collection to be worth $40 million US.
The U.S. Treasury also announced sanctions against Iran-linked firms in the Toronto and Vancouver areas accused of laundering billions of dollars in drug proceeds on Wedding's behalf.
Additionally, a co-defendant described by U.S. authorities as the operator of a "high-end prostitution ring" in Mexico — Carmen Yelinet Valoyes Florez — pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles last week to conspiracy to commit murder following her extradition from Colombia. Prosecutors allege Florez used her network to help locate the target of a murder plot, a Canadian-born FBI witness, and also introduced Wedding to his Colombian girlfriend.
Source: Google News CA — Crime (EN)