Mexican judge arrested in Ryan Wedding case. U.S. says he took $2 million bribe to free Canadian right-hand man

Toronto Star · Calvi Leon · 2026-11-05 16:35 UTC

Mexican federal judge Luis Benítez Alcántara, 49, of Mexico City, was arrested on Sunday in Colombia.

A Mexican judge has been arrested on U.S. charges that he accepted a $2-million bribe to grant bail to Ryan Wedding‘s alleged second-in-command, the U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday.

Federal judge Luis Benítez Alcántara, 49, of Mexico City, was arrested on Sunday in Colombia and charged with nine counts of being an accessory after the fact following the surprising release of Canadian Andrew Clark in early 2025.

Clark, 36, was initially arrested in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, on Oct. 8, 2024, amid a massive crackdown on a drug-trafficking empire allegedly controlled by Wedding. The ex-Olympic snowboarder is accused of leading one of the largest cocaine pipelines into Canada, via the U.S., Mexico and Colombia, and, alongside Clark, orchestrating murders on enemies or rivals of the organization.

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