El Mencho or Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, the feared leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) was killed by Mexican military on Sunday. His death sparked buzz about Ryan Wedding, the Canadian ex-Olympian and alleged drug kingpin.
Wedding, after years on the run, was arrested in Mexico in January and then extradited to the US. He is accused of running a transnational drug trafficking operation and also of murder. As per reports, authorities believed Wedding was in Mexico under the Sinaloa cartel’s protection.
The military action against El Mencho comes one month after news of Wedding’s arrest, causing many online to speculate if the two were linked.
El Mencho-Ryan Wedding buzz
Many speculated that Wedding might have helped authorities with some information that allowed them to track down El Mencho, in an effort to ease his own sentence.
“Maybe it’s a coincidence, but I find it weird that Ryan wedding turned himself in and now they killed El Mencho,” one person wrote on X. Another added “Ryan Wedding Drug Kingpin was captured not too long ago in Mexico City. Then chaos erupted with El Mencho dead, I bet Ryan Wedding tipped him off. Anyone else?”
Yet another person speculated about the possibility of Nicolas Maduro’s involvement. “Allegedly was Maduro & Ryan Wedding involved in tracking El Mencho?,” they asked on X.
Maduro, accused of aiding cartel activities, was captured by the US military on President Donald Trump’s orders and flown to the US from Venezuela, where he’s faced with indictments. The Venezuelan president has denied the allegations leveled against him by the US.
Wedding was described by FBI director Kash Patel as a ‘modern-day Pablo Escobar’ while US authorities also reportedly compared him to Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Fact-checking Ryan Wedding-El Mencho claims
Despite the speculations, there is nothing concrete tying Wedding and El Mencho. To be sure, the claims about Wedding were made by unverified profiles. Neither Mexican nor US authorities have indicated that Wedding had any role to play in the operation against El Mencho.
However, an update from the Mexican side noted that US intelligence had played a role in the Jalisco operation that claimed the life of the feared drug lord. Grok fact-checked the chatter surrounding Wedding and El Mencho as well, saying “There’s no public evidence of direct links between Ryan Wedding (tied to Sinaloa/Chapitos, DEA) and El Mencho (CJNG, rival). It could be an operational coincidence, but speculation is possible without proof.”
