Feds arrest fugitive Olympic snowboarder accused of becoming drug lord in Mexico

Richard Winton, Keegan Hamilton and Brittny Mejia, Los Angeles Times on Jan 23, 2026

Published in Olympics

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Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who allegedly became the head of a billion-dollar drug trafficking organization, has been apprehended by authorities in Mexico, U.S. officials announced Friday.

Authorities said Wedding, who is believed to have been in hiding for more than a decade and was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, was apprehended in Mexico City Thursday night and has been returned to the U.S. Two sources told the Los Angeles Times that Wedding negotiated his surrender.

FBI Director Kash Patel and other officials announced Wedding’s arrest at a news conference Friday morning at Ontario International Airport in Southern California.

“Just to tell you how bad of a guy Ryan Wedding is, he went from an Olympic snowboarder to the largest narco trafficker in modern times,” Patel said. “He is a modern day El Chapo, a modern day Pablo Escobar. He thought he could evade justice.”

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi also shared the news on X, calling it “a direct result of President Trump’s law-and-order leadership.” Under the president, she said, “criminals have no safe harbor.”

Wedding allegedly became a major trafficker of cocaine into Canada and the United States and a ruthless leader who ordered killings, including that of a witness in a 2024 federal narcotics case against him. The order resulted in the victim being shot to death in a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, in January 2025, prosecutors said.

Bondi previously said Wedding’s operation was responsible for more than $1 billion a year in illegal drug proceeds. She said Wedding’s organization was responsible for importing approximately 60 metric tons of cocaine a year into Los Angeles via semi-trucks from Mexico.

“He controls one of the most prolific and violent drug-trafficking organizations in this world,” Bondi said at a Nov. 19 press conference. “He is currently the largest distributor of cocaine in Canada.”

On Friday, Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch posted on X that Patel was returning to the U.S. with two priority targets: “a non-U.S. person who was detained by Mexican authorities among the FBI’s 10 most wanted and a Canadian citizen who voluntarily surrendered” at the U.S. Embassy.

Wedding’s capture follows another mass transfer of cartel suspects from Mexico to U.S. custody, with authorities south of the border handing over 37 inmates for prosecution. The Department of Justice said the defendants include high-ranking members of the Jalisco New Generation, Sinaloa and Gulf cartels.

Extraditions of high-level cartel suspects from Mexico have in past eras taken years to accomplish. Now, as it faces pressure from the Trump administration, the Mexican government has began moving quickly to expel some key figures outside of the standard process.

Wedding was previously charged in a 2024 indictment with running a continuing criminal enterprise, assorted drug trafficking charges and directing the murders of two members of a family in Canada in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment.

He was charged with running a drug ring that used semi trucks to move cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Southern California and Canada. Authorities said his aliases included “El Jefe,” “Public Enemy” and “James Conrad Kin.”

Wedding competed for his home country, Canada, in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Mexican officials last year began handing over dozens of alleged cartel leaders facing charges in U.S. federal courts, including Andrew Clark, Wedding’s alleged lieutenant, who is facing prosecution in Los Angeles.

In December, The New York Times cited U.S. and Canadian court documents that indicated Clark had started cooperating with authorities against his former boss. The records reportedly showed a witness believed to be Clark had “agreed to assist U.S. authorities in the investigation of Wedding’s organization.”

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