Former Canadian Olympic Snowboarder Ryan Wedding has been named on the FBI’s ‘Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List.’ He has been linked to one of the world’s most powerful drug trafficking organizations, the Sinaloa Cartel.
Mr Wedding, who is currently at large, has a $10 million reward for his arrest. He is accused of smuggling large amounts of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico, the US, and Canada. He is also wanted for multiple murders, including the killing of a Canadian couple in a case of mistaken identity in 2023.
Last month, the US authorities arrested Sinaloa Cartel’s two alleged high-ranking leaders.
Here’s all you need to know about Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.
Founded by Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo in the late 1980s, the Sinaloa Cartel was headed by El Chapo Guzman, who twice escaped out of Mexican jails until being apprehended by Mexican authorities in Sinaloa in 2016. It is among the most well-established and oldest drug trafficking organizations in Mexico.
The Sinaloa cartel is named after the northwestern Mexico state of Sinaloa, where the cartel was originally founded. For a long time, it has provided a large portion of the fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana sold on US streets.
The organisation handles the smuggling routes in Arizona and California and has distribution centres in a number of US cities. Additionally, the gang is accused of operating fentanyl factories in Mexico.
According to the CRS research, the cartel reportedly controlled between 40 and 60 per cent of Mexico’s drug trade in the early 2010s and made up to $3 billion a year. A US indictment that was made public last year claims that the gang used Bitcoin to launder over $869,000 between August 2022 and February 2023.
The cartel has been held responsible for the continuous violence in Mexico and for playing a significant part in the drug war that lasted there for years, killing tens of thousands of people.
One of the key players includes 76-year-old Zambada, who is regarded as the last of the old-school Mexican drug capos. He has been Guzman’s lifelong partner and is accused of running drug transportation operations, hiring individuals to guard warehouses where drugs were stored, and employing hitmen to kidnap and kill rivals who posed a threat to the cartel.