Breadcrumb Trail Links
CanadaCrimeWorld
‘He was caught in a violent conflict — it would no longer be safe for him there’
Article content
The sands of Ryan Wedding’s criminal hourglass were draining towards emptiness.
Advertisement 2
Article content
On Thursday night in Mexico City, the 44-year-old alleged arch-criminal from Thunder Bay surrendered to authorities at the U.S. embassy.
Article content
Article content
Queen’s University professor and one of the world’s foremost experts on organized crime, Antonio Nicaso, said after the news broke Friday that he agreed with a column I wrote a month ago about the coke kingpin’s prospects.
Global alliances to import drugs
For years, Wedding’s timing was impeccable. He allegedly came up with the scheme to ship tons of cocaine and methamphetamine into Canada via 18-wheelers owned by Punjabi criminals. He made alliances with a global potpourri of criminals.
And the onetime ski bum allegedly became, within a few years, Canada’s biggest drug trafficker, with a sprawling network from Colombia to Canada and all points in between.
Yet several factors were poised to derail the former Olympian’s lucrative drug-trafficking operation. Like legit businessmen, criminals crave stability.
Your Midday Sun
Article content
Advertisement 3
Article content
Mexican bloodbath
Nicaso pointed out that the power balance between different cartels and their factions suddenly made life precarious as streets south of the Rio Grande filled with blood in fratricidal warfare.
When Wedding was named to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List, and a $15-million reward was attached to his scalp, the situation became untenable. Smart criminals frown on attention.
Nicaso said that Mexico’s gangland playing field was changing. Wracked by civil war, the Sinaloa cartel is on a downward slide, while Jalisco New Generation are the new cool kids on the block.
“I’m only speculating, but I suspect this may have been one of the factors in his arrest,” Nicaso said.
The rupture in Sinaloa is pitting the sons of the caged Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán against those of Mayo Zampato, and Nicaso said one faction may have dropped a dime. There is also the possibility that Wedding had become too hot to handle.
Caught in the middle
“He was caught in a violent conflict — it would no longer be safe for him there,” Nicaso said. “You said it better than anyone else, my friend: No criminal wants the FBI in their backyard.”
Advertisement 4
Article content
As in technology, in the underworld, change is constant. As long as there are big profits and light punishment, as in Canada, there will be new chancers.
Nicaso told the Sun that Canada is a microcosm of the world’s organized crime milieu, but the landscape is fluid and evolving. He said when we think of organized crime, it goes far beyond the Mafia and Hells Angels.
“It is very different, and Ryan Wedding was part of the new breed,” Nicaso said, adding that with the digital realm, controlling the streets with guns and thugs is no longer necessary – or desired.
Criminals sitting in a bar in Barcelona can peddle drugs and crypto. Vincent Ramos is a good example, Nicaso said.
“Many of them don’t come from a criminal background. What matters is brains and seeing an opportunity,” he said. “Wedding went from an Olympic snowboarder to being called the new Pablo Escobar by the FBI.”
Nerds over guns
He added: “He is a product of that evolution. You don’t need a big organization — you may still need someone capable of violence. You can sell drugs over the internet or the dark web. Smart criminals are now exploring the digital realm. Those who don’t will die.
“If you’re a criminal, these days you want a nerd instead of a killer.”
And now Ryan Wedding is locked up. Maybe forever.
He should have kept to the slopes.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
Article content
Share this article in your social network