Wedding, who had been on the run for years, sought a judicial order to avert his detention in Sinaloa, Mexico, almost a year prior to being captured by U.S. authorities last week, per legal documents acquired by CBC News.

Reports from the local news outlet Riodoce indicate that Wedding — accused of managing a cocaine trafficking operation associated with the Sinaloa cartel — was convinced that Mexican law enforcement was narrowing in on him in early 2025.

In a filing to a Mexican federal court in the middle of February, Wedding asserted under oath that state police had secured an arrest warrant for his capture and extradition. At that time, he stated he was residing in Los Mochis, a coastal town in Sinaloa.

This filing occurred shortly after the FBI intensified its manhunt for Wedding, following the murder of a witness who was scheduled to testify against him.

Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, a veteran drug dealer from Montreal, was killed by assassins in Medellin, Colombia, on January 31, as Wedding allegedly put a $5 million U.S. bounty on his life.

At 44 years old, Wedding was arrested in Mexico last week and swiftly transported to California, where he faces 17 federal accusations, including murder, drug trafficking, witness tampering, and money laundering. He has entered a plea of not guilty.

CBC News has reviewed a ruling from a federal judge in Sinaloa dated November 4, 2025, which stated that he lacked jurisdiction over Wedding's request for an injunction — referred to as an amparo — because the original arrest warrant was issued in Mexico City.

The partially redacted decision viewed by CBC does not mention Wedding by name nor does it include his residential address in Los Mochis. However, a docket from the Mexican court identifies the plaintiff using his full name, Ryan James Wedding.

His attorney based in California, Anthony Colombo, informed CBC News via email that he was aware of the court case from 2025. Colombo noted, "The use of an amparo is prevalent in Mexico for contesting an arrest warrant that has been issued."

According to the Mexican judge’s ruling, the public safety director of Sinaloa initially admitted to pursuing the arrest warrant, but later retracted that admission.

"He initially accepted [the claim] on the basis that if he encountered the plaintiff during duty, he would detain him, but later clarified that he doesn’t possess the purported detention order for extradition," stated District Judge Jesús Adalberto Bañuelos Flores.

Cartel analyst Nathan P. Jones remarked in an interview that utilizing the Mexican legal system to delay proceedings is "a typical narco tactic."

Jones, who teaches security studies at Sam Houston State University in Texas, expressed skepticism that Wedding was residing at the address he provided.

The FBI included Wedding in its top ten most-wanted fugitives list last March. The agency's director Kash Patel referred to Wedding this week as "the largest drug trafficker in contemporary history," likening him to infamous drug lords like Pablo Escobar and Joaquín (El Chapo) Guzmán Loera.

The FBI claimed that the former Olympic snowboarder was under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel, co-founded by El Chapo.

While reporting from Sinaloa last month, CBC's Jorge Barrera learned from a national guard representative in the area that Wedding was not on their radar.

A Mexican security expert later informed Barrera that Wedding was specifically associated with Los Chapitos, a faction of the cartel still under the influence of El Chapo’s sons.

The RCMP first sought Wedding's detention in Montreal amid an investigation into substantial cocaine trafficking to Canada in 2015. U.S. officials now assert that the Thunder Bay, Ontario native had been hiding in Mexico since that time.

Colombo refuted claims that his client had remained in hiding for a decade.

"I would characterize it as 'living' [in Mexico]," Colombo told reporters this week after his client's arraignment. "The government can present it however they choose."

The FBI and the office of the Sinaloa attorney general did not respond promptly to requests for comments on Wedding's injunction application from 2025.

Mexican Attorney General Ernestina Godoy Ramos stated in a news release this week that Wedding functioned as a "top-tier logistics operator" connected to the Sinaloa cartel, acting "as a vital link for the extensive distribution of drugs across North America."

The Los Angeles Police Department previously reported that Wedding's network utilized stash houses in the vicinity to transport 60 tonnes of both cocaine and fentanyl annually to other locations within the U.S. and Canada.

The RCMP declared that Wedding's capture last week signified a "major milestone for public safety in Canada."