US charges Mexican judge with taking $2m bribe to free Ryan Wedding associate

Arrest and charges

US prosecutors announced on Thursday, 5 November, that Mexican district judge Luis Benítez Alcántara had been arrested in Colombia. The 49-year-old was detained on Sunday, 1 November, and a US grand jury has charged him with nine counts of being an accessory after the fact, which means helping a person avoid arrest, prosecution or punishment after a crime has been committed. The Justice Department statement says US officials will ask Colombia to extradite him. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison on each count. Benítez Alcántara sits as a district judge in Mexico City, and the Guardian reports that he was overseeing extradition proceedings in Mexico in 2024. It was not immediately known whether he had a lawyer.

The alleged bribe

The charges allege that Benítez Alcántara accepted $2 million to order the release of Andrew Clark, 36, who is considered the second-in-command of Ryan Wedding's network. Clark had been detained in Mexico in October 2024 on US drug trafficking, murder and attempted murder charges. At that point the judge was supervising the extradition process Washington had requested in November 2024. On 24 February 2025, the day the judge allegedly received the full payment, he granted Clark bail and ordered his release. Clark was detained again days later and transferred to the United States, where the case against him continues.

The Wedding network

Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder, was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list before his arrest in Mexico. He was transferred to the United States earlier in 2026. The FBI said the organisation he allegedly led was a transnational criminal group valued at $1 billion and was the largest cocaine supplier to Canada. Dozens of people have been arrested in the investigation, and authorities have seized drugs, weapons, cash and millions of dollars worth of vehicles, motorcycles, artwork and jewellery. In January, Wedding pleaded not guilty to 17 charges, and two trial dates have been set for 31 March and 26 October 2027. Clark's attorney, Matthew Lombard, did not immediately respond to messages.

What comes next

The case now moves to the extradition request, which US officials have said they will submit to Colombia. The Justice Department presented the arrest as a warning to officials who help traffickers. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the statement:

“Crooked public officials, no matter where they are, who assist drug traffickers operating here at home will face justice in the United States.”

The arrest is the latest in the US investigation into a multinational drug trafficking network allegedly run by Wedding.