Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder and one of the most wanted fugitives in the United States, was arrested on Friday in Mexico. Wedding, 44, had been on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and was facing multiple charges related to large-scale international drug trafficking and the murder of a federal witness.
U.S. authorities consider him a key figure in a sophisticated multinational drug trafficking network with alleged links to the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the world. Investigators say his operation moved cocaine through Colombia, Mexico, Southern California and Canada, using commercial semitrucks to transport narcotics across borders. His criminal structure, according to U.S. officials, relied on alliances with Mexican drug trafficking groups to secure routes and protection.
The FBI had offered a reward of up to 15 million dollars for information leading to Wedding’s arrest and conviction, underscoring the importance of the case for U.S. law enforcement agencies. His capture is expected to be formally announced at a press conference later Friday in California by FBI Director Kash Patel.
Wedding was charged in 2024 in the United States for running the drug trafficking organization and allegedly ordering multiple killings to protect the operation. In November, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed that Wedding had also been indicted for orchestrating the murder of a federal witness in Colombia in an attempt to avoid extradition to the United States.
According to court documents, Wedding and his co-conspirators used a Canadian website known as “The Dirty News” to publish a photograph of the witness, facilitating his identification. The witness was later followed to a restaurant in Medellín in January and fatally shot in the head.
Before becoming a fugitive, Wedding competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Authorities say he used multiple aliases, including “El Jefe,” “Public Enemy,” and “James Conrad Kin,” while evading capture. He also faces separate drug trafficking charges in Canada dating back to 2015, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. His arrest marks a significant blow to international drug trafficking networks operating across the Americas.
