Ryan Wedding, 44, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder and one of the Federal Bureau Of Investigation's (FBI) most wanted fugitives, was arrested in Mexico, according to senior officials at the Justice Department on Friday. He had been listed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and authorities had announced a $15 million reward for information that could lead to his arrest and conviction.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announced Wedding’s arrest in social media posts.
Why did FBI arrest an ex-Olympic snowboarder?
Wedding faces charges of running a drug trafficking ring, and officials allege that he planned multiple killings to advance his drug-related crimes, according to AP.
Ryan Wedding charges
Wedding was charged in 2024 with operating a drug ring that transported cocaine using semitrucks between Colombia, Mexico, Southern California, and Canada. Authorities said his aliases comprised “El Jefe", “Public Enemy", and “James Conrad Kin". Bondi, in November, revealed that he had also been indicted for allegedly orchestrating the killing of a witness in Colombia to help him avoid extradition to the US.
Authorities stated that Wedding and his co-conspirators used a Canadian website named “The Dirty News” to post a photograph of the witness so he could be identified and killed. The witness was later tracked to a restaurant in Medellín in January and shot in the head. According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Wedding faces separate drug trafficking charges in Canada dating back to 2015.
Conviction
Federal records indicate that Wedding was previously convicted in the US of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to prison in 2010. In 2024, federal prosecutors said they believed Wedding, after being released from prison, had resumed drug trafficking under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico.
How was Ryan Wedding arrested?
Patel said that Wedding was being taken to the US following his arrest Thursday night in Mexico, where US authorities believe the former Olympian had been in hiding for more than ten years.
“This is a huge day for a safer North America, and the world,” Patel wrote on X, “and a message that those who break our laws and harm our citizens will be brought to justice.”
Speaking at a news conference in California on Friday morning, Patel mentioned Wedding’s arrest was achieved through international cooperation and praised Mexico’s government and “global partnerships” for their contributions to the operation.
“When you go after a guy like Ryan Wedding, it takes a united front, and that’s what you’re seeing here,” he stated, calling him a “modern day El Chapo” who “thought he could evade justice”.
Patel met with officials in Mexico on Thursday and departed Friday with two detainees, Mexico's Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch wrote on X. He noted that the two detainees included a Canadian citizen who surrendered at the US embassy, along with another individual who was on the FBI’s most-wanted list and had been detained by Mexican authorities.
