Ryan Wedding didn't inform on slain drug lord 'El Mencho,' lawyer insists

The timing of the Mexican war machine performance nobleman's day that killed powerful do drugs lord Nemesio [El Mencho] Oseguera Cervantes — exactly a month after longtime fugitive Wedding was taken into U.S. Custody in Mexico — led online sleuths to suspect the two events may be linked.

Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder, led a violent drug-smuggling operation that moved 60 tonnes of cocaine across North America every year, according to U.S. Authorities. Within hours of his arrest in Mexico, Wedding was flown to California, where he pleaded not guilty to murder and drug trafficking. 

Mexican officials said they located Oseguera after acting on a tip from an associate of one of his romantic partners, with assistance from U.S. Intelligence.

Both Oseguera and Wedding were high-value targets for the Trump administration. U.S. Authorities had offered rewards of $15 million US for information leading to the capture of either man.

Officials in Mexico have emphasized that Wedding was not a cartel boss like Oseguera, but acted as a large-scale "logistics" operator with a sophisticated operation smuggling drugs across thousands of kilometres.

For years, the FBI said Wedding benefited from the protection of the Sinaloa cartel, co-founded by another notorious drug lord, Joaquín [El Chapo] Guzmán.

Although authorities never publicly acknowledged Wedding’s direct connection to El Mencho's Jalisco New Generation Cartel — known by its Spanish-language initials CJNG — there were suggestions the two men's networks worked together at times.

When Wedding's right-hand man, fellow Canadian Andrew Clark, was arrested by Mexican security forces in 2024, the country's security minister, Omar García Harfuch, said Clark had handled logistics for both the Sinaloa cartel and CJNG.

U.S. Authorities said Wedding, 44, had a stranglehold on cocaine in Canada, describing him as the single biggest importer of the drug into this country. 

It's unclear whether Wedding's alleged distribution network had any ties to a record-breaking cocaine seizure that Toronto police last year said had the "hallmarks" of El Mencho's cartel.

Dubbed "Project Castillo," investigators said the seizure netted 835 kilograms of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $83 million at the time. Police said the drugs had been destined to be distributed across Canada.

Luis Nájera, a Toronto-based crime analyst originally from Mexico, said in an interview it's likely that large-scale bust led to unreported killings carried out by CJNG.

"When this kind of seizure happens," he said, "there’s people who have to pay for that."

"And usually payment is basically, your life."

Police in Canada's biggest cities, meanwhile, say they expect El Mencho's killing could lead to another spike in the price of bulk cocaine in this country.

Montreal police said the price of a kilogram of cocaine briefly climbed to $33,000 following Wedding's arrest. It's since gone back down to $21,000, which is historically within the average price range in the city, a police spokesperson said.

Investigators in Toronto anticipate that while the price of a kilogram currently ranges from $21,000 to $26,000, "we will see an increase again as a result of what is happening in Mexico," Toronto police spokesperson Ashley Visser said in an email.

Montreal police said, even when the price fluctuates for drug traffickers, it typically remains stable for users. 

The product they're buying, however, may become more dangerous and unpredictable.

Samantha Velandia, a Montreal police spokesperson said "fluctuations in the price of a kilo influence the quality of the product, which tends to be purer when the price is low" and then cut with additives when the price rises.

"Sometimes, it's short lived," he said.

---

---