Overview
- U.S. officials said Wedding was taken into custody Thursday night in Mexico City and flown to Southern California, with images showing his arrival in Ontario and an initial court appearance expected Monday.
- Accounts of the apprehension differ, with the FBI describing an arrest in Mexico while a senior Mexican official told the AP he voluntarily surrendered at the U.S. embassy.
- A superseding federal indictment alleges a continuing criminal enterprise, cocaine distribution and export conspiracies, three murder counts, and an attempted murder count, including the killing of a federal witness in Medellín allegedly identified via the Canadian site The Dirty News.
- Authorities say Wedding operated with protection linked to the Sinaloa cartel, used semitrucks and stash houses to move cocaine across the Americas, and employed aliases including El Jefe, Public Enemy, and James Conrad Kin.
- Wedding had been on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list with a reward up to $15 million, and recent actions in Mexico included the seizure of about 62 high-end motorcycles valued near $40 million tied to the case.