Overview
- The Justice Department on Tuesday unsealed new indictments that add charges against alleged facilitator Roberto Gomez and allege that slain cartel leader Edgar Aaron Vazquez Alvarado supplied changing code words and manipulated police IDs to help suspects pass Mexican checkpoints.
- Prosecutors say Gomez, a fugitive from South Los Angeles now believed to be in Mexico, acted as a go-between for suppliers, moved cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl into Mexico, and passed sensitive law‑enforcement tips to help Ryan Wedding evade capture from October 2024 through January 2026.
- Ryan Wedding was arrested in Mexico and brought to the United States in January 2026; he has pleaded not guilty and his Los Angeles trial has been delayed into 2027 as investigators expand the case and pursue related arrests and extraditions.
- Authorities estimate the organization moved roughly 60 tons of cocaine a year using semi‑trailer trucks between Colombia, Mexico, Southern California and Canada and allege payments by cryptocurrency, large initiation fees and bribery of Mexican officials were part of the operation’s protections.
- The indictments coincide with wider enforcement steps including Treasury sanctions, seizure and planned auction of high‑value assets linked to the network, and Mexican operations that killed Vazquez and produced arrests of suspected corrupt officials, actions that could yield more charges and asset recoveries.