Mexican judge arrested over bribe from partner of ‘Canadian Chapo’

A Homeland Security Task Force tracked the judge down to Colombia, where authorities arrested him after he took a $2 million bribe in Mexico to let a Canadian drug boss go free from custody.MEXICO CITY (CN) — The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday the arrest of a Mexico City district judge over taking a $2 million bribe from Andrew Clark, known as “the Dictator,” in exchange for letting Clark walk free from Mexican custody.In a superseding indictment, the DOJ states that between November 2024 and February 2025, Clark transferred approximately $2.75 million in small increments through intermediaries. Clark, arrested in October 2024 in Jalisco on drug trafficking and murder charges, is accused of running a transnational criminal organization along with former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding.The Justice Department says that on Feb. 24, 2025, Judge Luis Benítez Alcántara, who oversaw Clark’s extradition proceedings, received $2 million from Clark, then granted him bond and ordered his release on the same day.Authorities arrested Benítez Alcántara Sunday in Colombia. The United States will request Benítez Alcántara’s extradition.“Crooked public officials, no matter where they are, who assist drug traffickers operating here at home will face justice in the U.S.,” U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote Thursday on X.FBI Director Kash Patel also celebrated the judge’s arrest on social media.“Benítez Alcántara was a district judge in Mexico City who allegedly accepted $2 million in exchange for granting bond to and ordering the release of Wedding’s second-in-command, while Wedding was orchestrating a billion-dollar transnational criminal organization and the largest supplier of cocaine to Canada with connections in Colombia, Mexico and the U.S.,” he wrote on X.Patel thanked the Los Angeles FBI office, Bogotá Law Enforcement Attaché and the Justice Department for their work.Benítez Alcántara is charged with nine counts of accessory after the fact over accepting the $2 million bribe, which can land him a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison for each count.According to the U.S. State Department, Wedding and Clark headed a “complex transnational organized crime organization which coordinated the procurement and transportation of cocaine from South America to the United States and Canada.”Wedding was apprehended on Jan. 23, though details surrounding his arrest are unclear.In his initial statement, Mexico’s security chief, Omar García Harfuch, said Wedding voluntarily turned himself in to a Mexican embassy after a meeting García Harfuch had with Patel and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson.Comments by then-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi suggest Wedding was forcibly arrested.“At my direction, Department of Justice agents [at the FBI] have apprehended yet another member of the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted List: Ryan Wedding, the onetime Olympian snowboarder turned alleged violent cocaine kingpin,” she wrote in a statement on X at the time of Wedding’s arrest.In a January press conference, Sheinbaum doubled down on Wedding turning himself in. She used an Instagram picture of him in front of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City as proof, which was later found to be AI-generated and connected to a fake Instagram account.In January, Wedding’s lawyer also discounted any possibility that Wedding turned himself in voluntarily.“Any spin that the government of Mexico is putting on this, that he surrendered, is inaccurate,” he said to reporters.Wedding is in federal custody in Los Angeles awaiting two separate criminal trials: one on March 31, 2027, and the other on Oct. 26, 2027.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads