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Longtime fugitive Ryan Wedding sought a court order to prevent his arrest in the Mexican state of Sinaloa nearly a year before he was finally taken into U.S. custody last week, according to legal documents obtained by CBC News.
The documents, first reported by Sinaloa news agency Riodocesuggest that Wedding – a Canadian accused of running a cocaine smuggling ring linked to the Sinaloa Cartel – believed Mexican authorities were closing in on him in early 2025.
In a filing in a Mexican federal court in mid-February, WednesdayDing testified under oath that state law enforcement had obtained a warrant seeking his arrest and extradition. He said that at the time he was living in Los Mochis, a coastal town in the western state of Sinaloa.
The complaint comes just days after the FBI’s manhunt for Wedding intensified, following the killing of a witness who was scheduled to testify against him.
Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, a longtime Montreal-born drug trafficker, was shot by a team of killers in Medellin, Colombia, on January 31, after Wedding allegedly placed a US$5 million price on his head.
Wedding, 44, was taken into U.S. custody in Mexico last week and immediately flown to California, where he faces 17 federal charges, including murder, drug trafficking, witness tampering and money laundering. He pleaded not guilty.
CBC News reviewed a Nov. 4, 2025, ruling by a federal judge in Sinaloa, who said he did not have jurisdiction over Wedding’s request for an injunction — known as amparo — because the underlying arrest warrant was issued in Mexico City.
The partially redacted decision seen by CBC does not name Wedding and leaves out her home address in Los Mochis. However, a Mexican court lists the plaintiff in the case by his full name, Ryan James Wedding.
His defense lawyer, California-based Anthony Colombo, said in an email to CBC News that he was aware of the 2025 trial. “The use of amparo is common in Mexico to suppress an issued arrest warrant,” Colombo said.
Mexican juiceThe CEO’s decision indicates that Sinaloa’s public security director initially admitted requesting the arrest warrant, but later denied doing so.
“He first accepted [the claim] because if he encountered or encountered the complainant in the exercise of his duties, he would detain him, but he clarified that he did not hold the claimed detention order for extradition purposes,” wrote District Judge Jesús Adalberto Bañuelos Flores.
Cartel expert Nathan P. Jones said in an interview, he said it was “a classic drug strategy” to use the Mexican legal system to slow down legal proceedings.
Jones, an associate professor of security studies at Sam Houston State University in Texas, said it was unlikely Wedding lived at the address he provided.
Olympic snowboarder-turned-drug lord Ryan Wedding pleaded not guilty to multiple charges against him during his first court appearance in Santa Ana, California, as uncertainty surrounds how Wedding ended up in police custody.
“Living” in Mexico under the protection of a cartel
The FBI added Wedding to its list of 10 most wanted fugitives last March. The agency’s director, Kash Patel, described Wedding this week as “the biggest narcotics trafficker of modern times” and compared him to notorious drug lords Pablo Escobar and Joaquín (El Chapo) Guzmán Loera.
The FBI said the former Olympic snowboarder was protected by the Sinaloa Cartel, co-founded by El Chapo.
While report from Sinaloa Last month, CBC’s Jorge Barrera was told by the Mexican National Guard in the state that Wedding was not on their radar.
A Mexican security expert said later Barrera that Wedding was specifically linked to Los Chapitos, the cartel faction still controlled by loyalists of El Chapo’s sons.
The RCMP first requested Wedding’s arrest in Montreal as part of an investigation into large-scale cocaine imports into Canada in 2015. U.S. authorities now sayThe Thunder Bay, Ontario native had has been hiding in Mexico since around this time.
Colombo denied that his client had spent a decade in hiding.
“I would describe it as ‘alive’ [in Mexico]”, Colombo told reporters this week after his client’s indictment. “The government can characterize things in its own way.”
The FBI and the Sinaloa Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wedding’s request for a 2025 injunction.
Mexican Attorney General Ernestina Godoy Ramos said in a statement this week that Wedding was a “leading logistics operator” linked to the Sinaloa cartel and served “as a key bridge for the mass distribution of drugs in North America.”
The Los Angeles Police Department previously said Wedding’s network used hideouts in the area to transport 60 tons each of cocaine and fentanyl per year to other destinations in the United States and Canada.
The RCMP said Wedding’s arrest last week marked an “important day for public safety in Canada.”
