Cartel boss helped Olympian traffic drugs, evade capture, U.S. says

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A cartel boss bribed Mexican public officials to help Olympian Ryan Wedding avoid capture while running a multinational drug trafficking organization, the Department of Justice said.

A cartel boss shot to death by police in Mexico last week helped Olympian Ryan Wedding traffic drugs and avoid the authorities before his arrest in January 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Tuesday.

In an indictment unsealed Tuesday, federal prosecutors alleged that Edgar Aaron Vazquez Alvarado, or "El General," trafficked cocaine for Wedding's criminal enterprise and provided the organization with "near-daily, rotating code words" that were used for safe passage through law enforcement checkpoints. Vasquez, 42, also allegedly paid Mexican public officials to slow down criminal investigations, tamper with evidence and dismiss criminal charges.

Vasquez also helped Wedding personally avoid U.S. law enforcement for two years, the Justice Department said.

The founder of Mexico City's El Cártel Nuevo Imperio, Vasquez was shot and killed by Mexican security forces attempting to serve an arrest warrant in Naucalpan, Mexico, according to Mexico's Security Minister Omar García Harfuch. Harfuch said Vasquez fired on security forces and was responsible for the 2024 death of Milton Morales, a Mexico City police chief.

The U.S. Justice Department also announced a six-count federal indictment against Roberto Gomez, a U.S. citizen and gang member living in Mexico. Federal prosecutors allege that Gomez has spent the past decade as a drug supplier to international criminal organizations, including Wedding's.

Gomez primarily transported cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl from Central America to Mexico with planes and maritime vessels, then used land-based methods to bring those substances into the U.S. and Canada, prosecutors say. His efforts allegedly included attempting to broker the sale of 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine between a supplier and Wedding. The sale would have been worth about $550,000, the Justice Department said.

From 2024 to 2026, Gomez, 51, also allegedly helped Wedding avoid apprehension by U.S. authorities.

If convicted on all charges, Gomez would face a…

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