Former Olympic athlete Ryan Wedding, accused of leading a cocaine trafficking network, was arrested Thursday night, confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel and Mexico’s Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar García Harfuch.
The organization headed by Wedding earned more than $1 billion annually in illicit profits from drug sales, according to previous statements by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Investigations indicated that Wedding had been living in Mexico for at least 10 years under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel. However, while living in Mexico, he met his future wife, Miryam Andrea Castillo Moreno, who was born in Nuevo León in 1991, making her approximately 34 years old, while Wedding was 44.
However, she was not only his romantic partner, as the U.S. Treasury Department accuses her of laundering drug money and committing acts of violence. Carmen Yelinet Valoyes Florez is a Colombian woman who runs a high-end prostitution ring in Mexico. Valoyes assisted Wedding in the murder of a federal witness in January 2025.
Valoyes introduced Wedding to her Colombian girlfriend, Daniela Alejandra Acuña Macías. Acuña has charged Wedding hundreds of thousands of dollars, whom she knew from the beginning of their relationship, living a life financed by violent drug trafficking.
He has helped Wedding obtain information about his rivals, the U.S. government agency said. The organization Wedding allegedly leads was designated on November 19 by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for alleged criminal activities.
