The Truth About "Canadian Chapo" Ryan Wedding?
The snowboarder may be guilty of cocaine trafficking but comparisons with Escobar are massively overblown
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UPDATE JAN. 23 - Former Olympic snow boarder turned cocaine king Ryan Wedding was arrested on Thursday, Jan. 22, in Mexico City, and flown by the FBI to Los Angeles, Mexican and U.S. officials announced on Friday. However, conflicting versions of how the arrest played out emerged.
Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch first announced in an X post that a Canadian citizen voluntarily handed himself in at the U.S. Embassy. This suggested the idea of a self surrender, which traffickers normally do when they are scared for their life from attacks by other narcos.
However, FBI Director Kash Patel later gave a press conference in which he praised a joint operation with Mexican and U.S. forces. Patel had flown down to Mexico City shortly before the arrest, saying "I was privileged to be there on a previously planned trip." (Now, that is coincidence!!!)
Patel was short on details of the arrest, ducking a question about if anyone got the reward money. But Vanity Fair reported after speaking to Patel that Mexican law enforcement detained Wedding, who then agreed, after “an intense negotiation,” to be handed over to the FBI Hostage Rescue Team. U.S. agents are not allowed to make arrests in Mexico and their presence in operations here is highly controversial.
One scenario could be of the U.S. bringing intel and coming down to Mexico, Mexican forces sweeping in to nab Wedding, and then Wedding under pressure agreeing to go into U.S. custody.
Yet to add even more intrigue, Mexican journalist Carlos Loret de Mola cited a Mexican government source saying it was a surrender to the FBI negotiated over weeks. And the U.S. embassy released a statement about the the arrest, which it titled as “la entrega voluntaria de Ryan Wedding,” or “voluntary surrender.” (This could be talking about the surrender from Mexican into U.S. custody however).
So much confusion in the messaging could point to an irregularity in the detention. Or possibly, Patel was playing up the drama of the arrest; we need to get more details and hear from Wedding and his lawyer. But either way, the “Snow King” is behind bars.
Original Story Below
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi claims Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder, now “controls one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in this world.” FBI director Kash Patel stepped in to say: “Ryan Wedding is a modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar. He’s a modern-day iteration of ‘El Chapo’ Guzman.” Rolling Stone has already announced a deal to make a TV series about him, with the jazzy title, “Snow King: From Olympian to Narco.”
The State Department has upped the reward for him to $15 million. The feds say he is hiding in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel, and some bright sparks on the internet twisted it to say he is running a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. An indictment lists a score of nicknames for him including “El Jefe,” “Giant” (he is 6 foot 3), and “Public Enemy.”
The Treasury published photos of alluring bling, including a $13 million special edition Mercedes, and of Wedding’s beautiful Mexican wife and equally beautiful Colombian girlfriend.
It’s refreshing in some ways that feds and media are going after a white Anglo narco instead of the usual Mexican or Colombian suspects. Yet while the actual facts in Wedding’s indictment look credible, the public claims made by Bondi, Patel and the media are clearly overblown, and easy to knock down. It’s a fun story that makes TV dollars. But what really do we know about Wedding’s alleged operation and how it compares to Escobar, Chapo or Mayo? Here, I show how some claims are patently exaggerated and paint a more realistic portrait of the Canadian cocaine king.
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