What went down behind the scenes of Ryan Wedding’s arrest, according to a Mexican security expert
Canadian fugitive was betrayed by faction of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel that was protecting him, analyst says
U.S. authorities were in contact with Canadian fugitive Ryan Wedding, the former Olympic snowboarder-turned alleged cocaine kingpin, days before his surrender at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City on Thursday, says a prominent Mexican security expert.
David Saucedo, a security analyst who regularly appears in Mexican media offering commentary on security and political issues, says FBI director Kash Patel decided to travel to Mexico City once U.S. authorities and Wedding had agreed on a time for the surrender.
"I understand that these negotiations were established various days ago," Saucedo said.
"So [Patel] planned this lightning visit to Mexico, to coincide with the surrender of Ryan Wedding, to bolster the perception that, thanks to him, he obtained this major victory with the arrest of the number one fugitive of the United States."
Saucedo said his information was based on conversations with Mexican security sources.
'Intense negotiation'
At a Friday news conference to announce Wedding's arrest, Patel said his trip to Mexico on Thursday to meet with Mexican security officials was pre-planned.
He wouldn't provide any details about the arrest, but did say Mexican and U.S. authorities "worked hand in glove ... on the ground" to apprehend Wedding in Mexico City on Thursday night.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Patel said that Wedding was taken into custody by the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team after "an intense negotiation."
In a statement released Friday morning, Mexico's security secretary, Omar García Harfuch, said that a Canadian had surrendered at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico on Thursday.
Harfuch spent part of Friday morning on a stage with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for a news conference in the Mexican Gulf coast city of Veracruz on a separate issue that lasted about an hour and a half.
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He didn't mention Wedding, and no journalist asked about his apprehension, which was reported by news agencies and published on social media during the news conference.
Saucedo said Mexican authorities were aware that U.S. authorities were in contact with Wedding in the days before the Canadian fugitive's Thursday surrender.
He said Harfuch likely remained silent on the matter during the news conference so as not to steal Patel's thunder.
"I think it was a political courtesy," Saucedo said.
Civil war within Sinaloa cartel
Patel has portrayed Wedding as a modern-day Pablo Escobar, who once headed the fearsome Medellin cartel in Colombia, and has also compared him to Joaquín (El Chapo) Guzmán Loera, one of the former leaders of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel.
Saucedo said Wedding managed to move and operate in Mexico City, living between top hotels there while under the protection of "Los Chapitos," the faction of the Sinaloa cartel still controlled by those loyal to the sons of El Chapo.
"For reasons still unknown, Los Chapitos decided to pull the backing that he had in Mexico and he had to find his own protection," Saucedo said, adding that this left Wedding powerless with the very real threat of assassination hanging over him.
Without the protection of Los Chapitos, Saucedo said Wedding became a target for those loyal to Ismael (El Mayo) Zambada Garcia, one of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel.
One of El Chapo's sons betrayed Zambada in July 2024 and handed him over to U.S. authorities, sparking a civil war within the cartel that has left thousands dead and disappeared in Sinaloa.
Wedding too trusting of cartel, analyst says
"That was Ryan's problem, he trusted excessively in Los Chapitos, and Los Chapitos have betrayal tattooed on their skin," Saucedo said.
"That’s how Los Chapitos have survived for so many years, they've betrayed associates, friends, collaborators. Ryan was no exception."
Saucedo said it seems Los Chapitos began to provide Mexican authorities with information about Wedding, which may have led to the raids in late December targeting several properties linked to the Canadian.
Authorities seized millions of dollars worth of high-end motorbikes, artwork and two Olympic medals.
With U.S. and Mexican authorities tightening the investigative ring around Wedding, Saucedo said it appears he was running out of options, and when faced with a choice between turning himself over to Mexican or U.S. authorities, he chose the latter.
"The Sinaloa cartel got rid of Ryan to keep the distribution networks, channels, routes and contacts," Saucedo said.
"I believe that, now, Los Chapitos are going to keep the narco-empire that Ryan left."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Tania Miranda Perez