Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned accused drug trafficker and accused murderer Ryan James Wedding has been arrested.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel took to X Friday morning (Jan. 23) to say that 44-year-old Wedding had been taken into custody in Mexico City Thursday night.
“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. He is a modern-day El Chapo. He is a modern-day Pablo Escobar and he thought he could evade justice,” Patel told media from the tarmac at the Ontario International Airport in California, shortly after the announcement.
Wedding is accused of “running and participating” in a transnational drug trafficking operation that allegedly shipped hundreds of kilograms cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and southern California to the rest of the U.S. and Canada. He’s alleged to be a member of the Sinaloa Cartel.
“This individual and his organization, the Sinaloa Cartel, poured narcotics into the streets of North America and killed too many of our youth and corrupted too many of our citizens and that ends today,” Patel said.
Wedding is also accused of orchestrating multiple murders and an attempted murder.
A March 2025 news release from the FBI says Wedding was one of two people who allegedly directed the Nov. 20, 2023 murders of two members of a family in Ontario in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through Southern California. Another member of the family survived the shooting, but was left with serious physical injuries.
Wedding is also accused of ordering the murder of another victim on May 18, 2024 over a drug debt.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wedding’s arrest was at her direction, according to a post on X. She added Wedding was flown to the United States “where he will face justice.”
Patel said Wedding is believed to have been hiding in Mexico for over a decade and has been wanted on charges for cocaine trafficking and murder since 2024. He also thanked the government and officials in Mexico for their collaboration in the arrest, as well as the federal RCMP.
“When you go after a guy like Ryan Wedding, it takes a united front and that’s what you’re seeing here.”
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme, who was also at the briefing in California, said no single agency or nation can combat transnational crime alone.
“The arrest of Ryan Wedding is the result of strong, trusted partnership,” Duheme said.
Patel added that Wedding is the sixth top-10 most wanted fugitive the FBI has captured within a year.
Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’S Los Angeles field office, said it was “also a good day” for the victims of this case.
“Ryan Wedding tormented several people and several families that will never be the same, but today, they get the justice that they sought.”
Davis said investigators worked for more than a year to find Wedding. It was in October 2024 that it was announced Wedding was wanted by the FBI.
A little more than a year later, in November 2025, the FBI announced a $15-million reward for infomation that could lead to Wedding’s arrest.
Then in December 2025, the FBI released a new photo of Wedding that was believed to have been taken in Mexico in 2025.
Wedding, who was born in Thunder Bay, Ont., and competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He placed 24th in the snowboard parallel giant slalom.
His biography on the Olympics website says Wedding was named in a search warrant in Maple Ridge for an investigation for growing large quantities of cannabis. He was never charged.
In May 2010, however, he was convicted of attempting to buy cocaine from a U.S. government agent in 2008. He was sentenced to four years in prison.