Sheinbaum Denies FBI Claim on Canadian Suspect’s Surrender

Mexico City, Mexico — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum denied on Monday statements by FBI Director Kash Patel, who claimed that former Canadian Olympic athlete and alleged drug trafficker Ryan Wedding had been captured in a joint operation conducted in the Latin American country.

“It must be made very clear, there are no joint operations in Mexico. U.S. agents, from the FBI or any other agency, are very clear about their limitations. We would not allow that, we do not agree with it, and I have personally expressed this several times to President Donald Trump,” the president warned during a press conference.

Sheinbaum specified that in the early hours of Friday, Wedding voluntarily surrendered at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, considering it better to face justice than to remain under pursuit due to drug trafficking charges against him.

“What is the best proof that he surrendered? A post that he himself made,” she added, showing a photograph of Wedding in front of the embassy moments before surrendering, which he posted on social media with a message explaining that he had sought guarantees of a fair judicial process.

Sheinbaum explained that Patel traveled to Mexico last week to hold meetings with Mexican officials. Upon returning to the U.S., he claimed that Wedding had been detained in a bilateral operation, which was immediately denied by Secretary of Security Omar García Harfuch. “Later, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico himself denied it,” she recalled.

“Why did the FBI director say it? I don’t know, it’s up to him to clarify,” she said, emphasizing that the only existing agreement between the two countries is for sharing security-related information.

Who is Ryan Wedding?

Wedding has been compared to the late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar (Medellín Cartel) and Mexican Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán (Sinaloa Cartel), as he is accused of leading a transnational drug trafficking organization.

At 44 years old, after hiding for over a decade, the accused finally surrendered last week at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico. His arrest was communicated the following day.

FBI Director Kash Patel was the first official to confirm the detention, but in his statement, he did not mention that it had been a voluntary surrender, only referring to an operation “resulting from great cooperation and teamwork with the Government of Mexico.”

Later, Mexican Secretary of Security Omar García Harfuch explained that he had received Patel in Mexico City, and that when Patel departed back to the U.S., he took “two priority targets”: Wedding and “a non-U.S. person” who was also on the FBI’s most-wanted list.