Fugitive gang member helped Olympian run drug cartel and evade arrest, feds allege
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- Federal prosecutors say Roberto Gomez, a South Los Angeles gang member who fled to Mexico, helped former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding run a billion-dollar drug cartel.
- Gomez allegedly fed Wedding sensitive U.S. and Mexican law enforcement information from 2024 through January 2026, helping him evade arrest as drugs moved across North America.
- A separate indictment accuses a Mexican cartel figure, killed by police last week, of trafficking cocaine for Wedding’s organization and paying officials to obstruct investigations.
A South Los Angeles gang member on the run in Mexico helped Olympic snowboarder Ryan James Wedding run a billion-dollar drug trafficking cartel and helped Wedding avoid law enforcement by feeding the cartel boss information from U.S. and Mexican authorities, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Roberto Gomez, 51, from the Central-Alameda area, was charged with multiple felonies, including one count of conspiracy to possess and distribute controlled substances, one count of conspiracy to import controlled substances, three counts of accessory after the fact and one count of attempting to transact a deal with a designated narcotics trafficker.
Federal prosecutors allege Gomez, also known as “Rob Flores,” “Fat Boy,” Fats” and “Rooster,” had developed connections with the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels and with law enforcement officials on both sides of the border.
Gomez had fled to Mexico in 2000 after he was indicted with two counts of second-degree burglary, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office.
Then in 2018, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles handed down another indictment against Gomez, charging him with drug trafficking and money laundering.
Luiz Benítez Alcántara was overseeing extradition proceedings in Mexico in 2024 involving a Canadian facing drug trafficking charges linked to Olympian Ryan Wedding.
During his time in Mexico, federal prosecutors allege, Gomez acted as an intermediary supplier of narcotics to multiple drug organizations, including Wedding’s. Gomez remains on the lam in Mexico, officials said in a statement.
Wedding was arrested in Mexico in January after federal authorities alleged the former Olympic snowboarder had become the head of a drug trafficking organization. Wedding had been on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list for more than 10 years, and moved much of his illicit product through Los Angeles, prosecutors said at the time of his arrest.
Wedding has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutors allege Gomez helped Wedding evade capture for years by getting sensitive law enforcement information — such as pending arrests, drug seizures, warrant executions and indictments — and feeding it to Wedding from October 2024 to January 2026.
Prosecutors alleged that Ryan James Wedding, 43, ran the drug trafficking organization from 2011 to 2024 along with his second-in-command Andrew Clark.
Gomez is also accused of transporting cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl into Mexico from Central America and moving it into the U.S. and Canada via ground transportation. Prosecutors allege he tried to broker the sale of 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine between a supplier and Wedding for about $550,000 in cryptocurrency.
Federal prosecutors also unsealed an indictment Tuesday against Edgar Aaron Vazquez Alvarado, 42, also known as “El General,” who was shot and killed by police in Mexico last week. Prosecutors allege Vazquez claimed to be a founder and boss of the New Empire cartel and trafficked cocaine for Wedding’s organization.
Vazquez also helped Wedding evade capture, prosecutors allege, by paying public officials in Mexico to slow down investigations, get rid of evidence and dismiss charges.
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