01/23/26 10:08:00
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01/23 10:06 CST Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder on the FBI's 'Most
Wanted' list, has been arrested
Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder on the FBI's 'Most Wanted' list, has
been arrested
By ERIC TUCKER, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MIKE BALSAMO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) --- Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder from Canada who
was among the FBI's top fugitives and faces charges related to multinational
drug trafficking and the killing of a federal witness, has been arrested in
Mexico, top Justice Department officials said Friday.
Wedding, 44, is accused of running a drug trafficking operation, and officials
say he orchestrated several killings to further the drug crimes. He was on the
FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, and authorities had offered a $15 million
reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed Wedding's
arrest in social media posts. Patel said Wedding was being transported to the
U.S. after being apprehended Thursday night in Mexico, where U.S. authorities
believe the former Olympian been hiding for more than a decade.
"This is a huge day for a safer North America, and the world," Patel wrote on
the social platform X, "and a message that those who break our laws and harm
our citizens will be brought to justice."
Patel was expected to hold a news conference later Friday in California.
A Canadian citizen, Wedding competed for his home country in the 2002 Winter
Olympics in Salt Lake City. Olympic records show he participated in a single
men's snowboarding event, parallel giant slalom, finishing 24th.
Wedding was charged in 2024 with running a drug ring that used semitrucks to
move cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Southern California and Canada.
Authorities said his aliases included "El Jefe," "Public Enemy" and "James
Conrad Kin."
In November, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that he had also been
indicted on charges of orchestrating the killing of a witness in Colombia to
help him avoid extradition to the U.S.
Authorities said Wedding and co-conspirators used a Canadian website called
"The Dirty News" to post a photograph of the witness so he could be identified
and killed. The witness was then followed to a restaurant in Medelln in
January and shot in the head.
Wedding faces separate drug trafficking charges in Canada that date back to
2015, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Wedding was previously convicted in the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute
cocaine and was sentenced to prison in 2010, federal records show. Federal
prosecutors in 2024 said they believed Wedding, after his release from prison,
had resumed drug trafficking under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel in
Mexico.
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