U.S. authorities have launched two new pictures of Canadian fugitive Ryan Marriage ceremony, because the FBI intensifies its seek for the alleged drug kingpin.
One picture, which the FBI mentioned it had “newly obtained,” reveals Marriage ceremony, 44, shirtless in mattress, revealing a big tattoo of a lion on his chest. The image is believed to have been taken in Mexico this previous summer time, the company’s Los Angeles area workplace mentioned in a social media publish Monday night.
Individually, the U.S. embassy in Mexico revealed Monday what gave the impression to be an older photograph of the Thunder Bay, Ont.-born fugitive in a inexperienced t-shirt, with a shaved head. Officers didn’t instantly present particulars as to when and the place the driving force’s licence or passport-style photograph had been taken.
Marriage ceremony, who competed for Canada as a snowboarder on the 2002 Olympic Video games in Utah, was added this yr to the FBI’s record of 10 most-wanted fugitives. Final month, the U.S. elevated the reward supplied for data resulting in his arrest to $15 US million, up from the earlier $10 million US.
The U.S. embassy in Mexico has revealed this new photograph of Marriage ceremony. Officers didn’t say when or the place the photograph was taken. (U.S. embassy in Mexico)
He’s accused of operating a murderous felony empire that routinely ships tonnes of cocaine and fentanyl, plus methamphetamine and heroin, from Mexico and South America, to L.A., after which onto U.S. and Canadian locations.
FBI director Kash Patel not too long ago described Marriage ceremony as “the modern-day iteration” of infamous drug lords Pablo Escobar and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
The company has mentioned Marriage ceremony is hiding in Mexico, below the safety of the Sinaloa cartel, as soon as led by Guzman.
New pictures present completely different seems
The 2 newly-released pictures present strikingly completely different seems for Marriage ceremony, with a shaved, balding head within the older picture and a full head of hair earlier this yr.
The image taken in mattress seems to be the primary picture launched by authorities that was both snapped by Marriage ceremony himself or somebody intimately near him. The FBI had beforehand posted two pictures taken in 2024 which appeared to have been taken from a distance, with out his data.
Marriage ceremony is seen in an undisclosed location in 2024. (FBI)
In every occasion, the FBI didn’t disclose the place the images had been taken, or how they had been obtained. CBC’s visible investigations unit decided one 2024 picture of Marriage ceremony, carrying a blue name cap and white t-shirt, was taken in Mexico Metropolis’s Santa Fe enterprise district.
Final month, Akil Davis, the assistant director in control of the FBI’s L.A. area workplace advised reporters that Marriage ceremony “might change his hair colour, his appearance, and do anything to avoid capture.” The company beforehand instructed Marriage ceremony might even have undergone cosmetic surgery.
The previous athlete stands six ft, three inches tall and is assumed to weigh between 230 and 250 kilos.
Investigators have mentioned he’s used the aliases James Conrad King and Jesse King, plus a listing of pseudonyms, together with Public Enemy, Large, Grande, Mexi and “El Jefe” (the boss).
“Someone like Ryan Wedding is going to stick out in Mexico,” Davis mentioned, “and that is why we’re soliciting the public’s help to try and identify and locate him, [and] arrest him.”
In a video launched on-line Monday, the U.S. embassy in Mexico urged the general public to achieve out with any ideas concerning Marriage ceremony’s whereabouts.
“If you have seen him or have any information about him, your call is crucial,” the embassy mentioned in a social media publish in Spanish.
Marriage ceremony is alleged to have ordered dozens of murders around the globe, together with the capturing deaths of an harmless Indian couple in Caledon, Ont., mistakenly focused in Nov. 2023 over a stolen cocaine cargo.
WATCH | Who’s Ryan Marriage ceremony?:
Ryan Marriage ceremony, the Canadian on the centre of one of many greatest worldwide felony investigations on the earth, continues to evade seize thanks partly, the FBI says, to safety from the highly effective Sinaloa drug cartel and different felony entities in Mexico. He’s been on the run since 2015, wished in reference to a number of drug and conspiracy crimes, along with ordering and orchestrating homicide.
Final month, Marriage ceremony and a number of associates had been charged in reference to the January slaying of Montreal-born drug-trafficker-turned FBI witness, Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia in Medellin, Colombia.
As a part of the investigation, the FBI seized an ultra-rare Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR Roadster in Miami final month, estimated to be value $13 million US. CBC reported the automobile — regarded as one among solely six ever constructed — had been bought by a Toronto jeweller accused of performing as one among Marriage ceremony’s chief cash launderers.
