Stunning new footage has emerged of Olympic snowboarder-turned-alleged drug kingpin Ryan Wedding arriving in the US in handcuffs following his arrest.
Wedding, who represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics, was among the FBI‘s 10 most-wanted fugitives. He spent more than a decade on the run before handing himself into the authorities.
The 44-year-old is accused of leading a billion-dollar drug-smuggling operation and orchestrating several murders.
He has been labelled a ‘modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar’ and was believed to be living in Mexico under the protection of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel.
On Friday, a plane carrying Wedding was seen touching down in Ontario, California.
The former Olympian, who wore jeans and a black cap, towered above FBI agents as they escorted down on to the runway in handcuffs. He was followed by FBI director Kash Patel.
Stunning new footage has emerged of Ryan Wedding arriving in the US in handcuffs
Wedding represented Canada during the Winter Olympics in 2002 but he did not win a medal
A previous wanted poster for Wedding, with the FBI offering up to $10million for information
Authorities across the US, Canada and Mexico had been hunting Wedding, with the FBI offering a reward of $15million for information leading to his arrest.
But he is said to have turned himself in to the US embassy in Mexico City. Mexico’s security secretary Omar García Harfuch wrote on social media that Patel held meetings in Mexico on Thursday and left the following day with two detainees.
One of those in custody was a Canadian citizen who turned himself in. The Associated Press reported that was Wedding.
Wedding had been in contact with US officials to agree to a surrender, leading Patel to rush south to meet him. Experts told the CBC that authorities were closing in and the former snowboarder was ‘running out of options.’
Reports in Mexico say Wedding turned himself into the American embassy at 2:40am on Friday after the former athlete negotiated with the FBI for weeks.
‘This was a complex, high-stakes operation with zero margin for error. I was on the ground with our team in Mexico and witnessed extraordinary teamwork, precision, and trust between our agents and partners in Mexico,’ Patel told Vanity Fair.
‘After nearly a decade on the run, Ryan Wedding is now in US custody where he belongs.’
The American embassy in Mexico released a statement after the arrest of Wedding, calling it ‘a concrete step against transnational criminal organizations, cartels, and narco-terrorists,’ while praising the collaborative efforts of US President Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum ‘to hold criminals accountable wherever they operate.’
On Friday, law enforcement officials revealed Wedding had been arrested and put in custody
The 44-year-old is accused of leading a billion-dollar drug-smuggling operation
Attorney General Pam Bondi claims that the 44-year-old Canadian had been wanted over an alleged transnational drug ring that is responsible for bringing around 60 metric tons of cocaine into Southern California annually.
Wedding was allegedly under the protection Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel for the better part of the last decade and was compared by Patel to that group’s imprisoned former leader, Joaquín ‘El Chapo‘ Guzmán.
He was previously convicted in the United States on cocaine distribution charges and later served three and a half years years of a four-year prison sentence.
In 2024, he was hit with eight felony charges, including three counts of murder, and last November, a grand jury indictment against Wedding was unsealed.
He was charged with the death of a federal witness who was supposed to testify against the former snowboarder.
NBC was the first to report the arrest, which took place in Mexico City on Thursday night. Wedding will stand before a judge on Monday, FBI Los Angeles Field Office assistant director Akil Davis told reporters Friday.
Shortly after Wedding was apprehended, Patel described the 44-year-old as ‘a modern-day El Chapo‘ and claimed ‘he went from an Olympic snowboarder to the largest narco trafficker in modern times.’
The FBI director continued: ‘It goes without saying to go down to Mexico to find a guy who’s been on the lam for multiple years for some of the most egregious crimes on planet Earth, takes an inter agency-wide effort led out by President [Donald] Trump, our DOJ and our partners in Mexico, and [we are] very grateful for that partnership.’
Akil Davis, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI LA Field Office, speaks while standing next to FBI Director Kash Patel, during an announcement of the apprehension of Ryan Wedding
This marks the sixth member of the FBI’s ‘Ten Most Wanted’ list who has been arrested this year, according to Patel.
The FBI Director also thanked Mexico for its cooperation in taking down Wedding, as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). US Ambassador to Mexico, Ronald D. Johnson, was credited with ‘quarterbacking’ this case over the last year.
Bondi, meanwhile, thanked Patel online for his contributions to the arrest: ‘Director Patel has worked tirelessly to bring fugitives to justice. We are grateful to our incredible Ambassador Ron Johnson and the Mexican authorities for assisting us in this case.’
Law enforcement agencies across the US, Mexico, Canada, the Dominican Republic and Colombia have worked together to arrest 36 individuals allegedly connected to Wedding, while the U.S. Treasury sanctioned 19 people, including the former Olympian.
A month ago, the FBI released never-before-seen photos of a $40million seizure of vehicles believed to be owned by Wedding. Among the items seized were 62 motorbikes, as well as a rare, $13m 2002 Mercedes CLK-GTR Roadster.
FBI agents also found two other vehicles, two Olympic medals, methamphetamine, marijuana, works of art, and ammunition. It is not clear who the medals belong to, given Wedding finished 24th in the parallel giant slalom at his sole Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.
Shortly after Wedding was caught, Patel described him as ‘a modern-day El Chapo’
The US Treasury Department recently claimed Wedding has built a ‘complex web’ of assets to hide his wealth, using luxury cars, motorcycles, properties, cryptocurrency and front businesses.’
In November, Patel said Wedding was responsible for ‘engineering a narco trafficking and narco terrorism program that we have not seen in a long time.’ He and his alleged accomplices used California stash houses and semitrucks to move tons of cocaine and fentanyl through North America, according to authorities.
That network was previously described by Bondi as ‘one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in the world.’
Authorities have also said there was ‘some evidence’ Wedding had undergone cosmetic surgery to alter his appearance and further evade detection.
Earlier this month, the FBI added an alleged Wedding accomplice, Bianca Canastillo-Madrid, to its ‘Wanted’ list. She was subject of a federal arrest warrant after being charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to export cocaine and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
