Is the U.S. really ‘inflating’ Ryan Wedding’s image as drug kingpin?

If it were the premise of a Hollywood movie, it would be hard to believe.

A young Olympic snowboarder from Canada throws away a promising future by turning to a life of crime, only to become one of the world’s most-wanted men — all while amassing vast wealth and leaving behind a trail of bodies. 

Could it all be true?

In an interview with CBC News, an operative for Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa cartel has sought to poke holes in the story of fugitive Ryan Wedding — that is, in the version told by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice. 

The unnamed cartel enforcer said the U.S. is “inflating” Wedding’s role “to put all the attention on him,” and to claim victory if the Thunder Bay, Ont., native is captured. He also dismissed the FBI’s allegation that the Canadian is being protected by the Sinaloa cartel.

Indeed, there’s likely an element of political theatre involved in the high-profile manhunt. But many facts of the case have been established in court. 

The following analysis is based on a reporter’s review over the past year of hundreds of pages of court filings, multiple hours of court hearings, public statements by prosecutors and investigators, and interviews with current and former officials familiar with the case.

Protected by the Sinaloa cartel?

First of all, the FBI has provided no evidence to back up its repeated claim that Wedding is being protected by the Sinaloa cartel — a violent drug-trafficking syndicate in the midst of its own bloody infighting.

The U.S. federal agency first made the protection allegation in the fall of 2024. By then, a civil war had broken out between the cartel’s two main factions: Los Chapitos, named after the sons of notorious drug lord Joaquín (El Chapo) Guzmán, and the group loyal to Ismael (El Mayo) Zambada, another co-founder of the cartel.

Investigators have declined to say with which branch Wedding may be aligned.

In an interview earlier this year, a former senior official with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) told CBC it would be unthinkable for the Sinaloa cartel to be protecting Wedding under the current circumstances.

“That’s absurd,” said Mike Vigil, who served as the DEA’s chief of international operations. “The cartel right now is in conflict,” he said. 

Still, there may be more to the story.