The main target of the action is the laboratory supply company Sumilab, based in Culiacan, the capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The Treasury Department, which previously sanctioned the company in 2023, maintains that this business participates in the Sinaloa Cartel's fentanyl production chain. The U.S. identified the Favela Lopez family as being behind the Sumilab operation, specifically four siblings (Victor Andres, Francisco, Jorge Luis, and Gabriela) and some of their partners (Jairo Verdugo and Gilberto Gallardo).
Wedding, who competed for Canada as a snowboarder at the 2002 Olympic Games in Utah, is accused of running a $1-billion US criminal enterprise that routinely smuggles truckloads of cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine across North America. Mexico has also linked Wedding's network to international arms trafficking. The Thunder Bay, Ont., native and his second-in-command, fellow Canadian Andrew Clark, are charged with orchestrating four murders between them in Ontario, including the mistaken-identity shootings of a couple visiting from India.
Authorities reported the discovery of 20 bodies abandoned along Highway 15, with four decapitated victims hung from a bridge and further bodies found in a truck.
Maria Isabel Cruz notes how the community has grown accustomed to finding bodies: "Once there, it wasn't difficult to find the bodies: here a leg sticking out of a pile of dust."
