At President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Tuesday morning press conference, federal officials responded to questions about two high-profile men who are on the lam and believed to be in Mexico.
One is a former Canadian Olympian who was last week added to the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list. The other is a former governor of the state of Michoacán.
‘From shredding powder to distributing powder cocaine
Last Thursday, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that former Olympic snowboarder and Canadian national Ryan James Wedding, 43, had been added to its “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List.”
“At present, Wedding is wanted for allegedly running a transnational drug trafficking network that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other locations in the United States, and for orchestrating multiple murders and an attempted murder in furtherance of these drug crimes,” the FBI said.
The FBI said that “investigators believe that Wedding is residing in Mexico but have not ruled out his presence in the United States, Canada, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica or elsewhere.”
It noted that “in June 2024, Wedding and his second-in-command, Andrew Clark, 34, also Canadian, were charged in an indictment out of the Central District of California with running a continuing criminal enterprise.”
Clark was one of 29 drug cartel figures extradited from Mexico to the United States late last month.
Akil Davis, the Assistant Director of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said that Wedding, who represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics, “went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of U.S. cities and in his native Canada.”
The United States Department of State is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to Wedding’s arrest and/or conviction.
According to organized crime expert Chris Dalby, the fugitive Olympian is “a business partner” to both the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and “makes deals with Hezbollah financiers, the Hells Angels, Italian mafia clans, Punjabi drug families, and Colombian cocaine producers.”
Asked whether Ryan James Wedding is in the crosshairs of the Mexican government, Sheinbaum called on Security Minister Omar García Harfuch to respond.
García said there is an ongoing investigation into Wedding and highlighted that Mexico is collaborating with the United States on the case.
“But he is not [Mexico’s] only target,” he said.
Federal security forces arrest people who are subject to extradition orders “every week,” García said.
Wedding’s case is not “special” in comparison with those of other suspects wanted in Mexico, the security minister said.
“He’s another criminal with an extradition order who is on a list like others we have detained,” García said.
In late January, FBI “Ten Most Wanted Fugitive” Arnoldo Jiménez was arrested in Monterrey, Nuevo León. He is accused of murdering his wife in Illinois in 2012 less than 48 hours after getting married.
Among the other FBI “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” who have been arrested in Mexico is notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was taken into custody in northern Mexico in 2022. He was also among the 29 cartel figures extradited to the United States last month.
Appearing with Wedding on the FBI’s current “10 Most Wanted Fugitives” list is Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, also known as “El Chapo Isidro.”
According to the FBI, he is “the alleged leader of the Meza-Flores Transnational Criminal Organization, a heavily armed, major drug-trafficking organization based in Sinaloa, Mexico.”
‘Sooner or later we’re going to arrest him’
A reporter raised the case of former Michoacán governor Silvano Aureoles (2015–21), who is wanted on corruption charges, including ones for embezzlement and the carrying out of operations with resources of illicit origin.
Sheinbaum referred the reporter’s questions to Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero.
Gertz said there is a longstanding investigation into Aureoles due to “a series of complaints” related to the construction of “jails” (cárceles in Spanish) in Michoacán.
The use of the word cárceles appeared to be a slip of the tongue as Mexican media outlets have reported that the corruption case is related to the construction of police barracks (cuarteles).
Gertz said “there was clear embezzlement of enormous dimensions” on the part of Aureoles and his alleged accomplices.
“And after a lot of procedural problems with federal judges, the Attorney General’s Office was finally able to prosecute the case,” he said.
“There were five people … involved including the ex-governor. The first four were already arrested,” Gertz said.
He said that Aureoles “went on the run” but declared that he is “being followed with a lot of precision by the entire security cabinet.”
“… Sooner or later, we’re going to arrest him, I don’t have the slightest doubt,” Gertz said.
Federal authorities don’t believe that the ex-governor has left Mexico, at least not via an airport or seaport, according to the newspaper Reforma.
Citing police sources, the Milenio newspaper reported that Aureoles could be hiding out on one of his ranches.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
