Photo of Ryan Wedding as a suspected drug addict by the US, said a Sinaloa company employee

The US state is “boosting” the image of Ryan Wedding to create a big news event when the alleged cocaine kingpin is finally brought down, says an employee of a Mexican company that law enforcement believes is protecting the former Canadian Olympian.

In an interview with CBC News in northwest Mexico, who works with the Sinaloa company said his organization has been working with Canadian drug clients for more than two decades, but only recently heard of Mshado’s name in news reports and social media posts.

“His name has spread over the past few months, they say he is the new Chapo,” said the surgeon, referring to his nickname. Joaquín (El Chapo) Guzmán Loeraone of the former leaders of the Sinaloa group.

“They’re spreading the word, they’re sneaking this person up for attention … I believe they may know where he is and they’re just going to let this pass and pretend it’s big news.”

The US Department of Justice says it believes Mshado, 44, lives in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel, one of the world’s most notorious criminal groups.

FBI Director Kash Patel called Marriage the new El Chapo. The former Sinaloa cartel leader was extradited from Mexico to the US in 2017 and remains in prison. American Attorney General Pam Bondi also said that Mshado was in charge of an organization that moved many tons of cocaine from Mexico to the US and Canada.

There is a $15-million reward offered by the US State Departmentr the abduction of Mshado, who has been a fugitive since 2015.

Earlier this year, the FBI added Wedding, who competed for Canada as a figure skater at the 2002 Olympic Games in Utah, to its list of 10 most wanted fugitives.

Search for information

Looking for more information on the marriage issue, CBC News obtained an interview with a member of the company that is allegedly helping her stay hidden. CBC News is not releasing the person’s name or affiliation for security reasons.

The meeting, organized by independent journalist Miguel Angel Vega, from the state of Sinaloa, was held in a safe place in Culiacán. The city is the capital of the state of Sinaloa, located in northwestern Mexico along the Pacific Ocean.

Culiacánknown as the cradle of the cartel of Sinaloa, it is part of the battlefield between two major groups that have been fighting since one of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, kidnapped Ismael (El Mayo) Zambada. Garcia and extradited him to the US in July 2024.

The conflict left thousands dead and disappeared and forced hundreds of families living in the countryside to flee.

The employee told CBC News that he was providing “security” to his team. When asked if that meant he was a “sicario,” or hitman, he said, “more or less, yes.”

In a recent press conference, Bondi said Mshado ran an organization that transported 60 tons of cocaine in one year to Los Angeles from Mexico.

The woman said she doubted that the marriage could move that much cocaine without the help of a large local that understands the “operations of the infrastructure” from South America to Mexico, which is a distribution point to the US, Canada and Europe.

“Personally, I think it’s too much work for a Canadian,” he said.

This worker, who claims to have been in front of El Chapo and El Mayo, said that he does not believe that this organization protects marriage because this organization is consumed by its own wars.

“I don’t think that the Sinaloa cartel might be protecting him right now because the cartel is going through situations that could lead to its downfall,” he said.

Internecine cartel conflict has also led to increased Mexican military and federal police presence in Culiacan and throughout the region.

Not on the National Guard’s Sinaloa radar

Maj.-Gen. Julices Julián González Calzada, who oversees the Mexican National Guard in Sinaloa, said his mission is focused on restoring peace to the people of Culiacan.

Marriage is not on their radar, he said.

“Regarding whether we do any follow-up or anything specific about it [Wedding] here in the state of Sinaloa, I have never had anything like that, and I have no information about this matter,” said González Calzada.

“An idea [of Wedding] it comes from Canadians, and if they think this person is affecting them the way Pablo Escobar did, or the way Chapo Guzmán affected us here in Mexico, maybe they do. In fact, I know very little about him.”

The Sinaloa company has been present in Canada for at least 25 years and is involved in everything from cocaine to methamphetamine and fentanyl trafficking, the cartel official said.

He said the business is profitable in Canada even though the dollar is weak because drug products cost more because of the distance traveled. He said that trade is chaotic in the US because organized crime groups are constantly stealing each other’s cargo.

“In the United States, people have become like thieves… Canada, the people, the clients, they are top notch. They are high-level people,” he said.

“They’re mass workers, they’re capos.”