A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list was arrested in Mexico, Justice Department officials said Friday.
Ryan Wedding, 44, is accused of running a drug trafficking operation and arranging several killings to protect the drug crimes. He faces charges of multinational drug trafficking and the killing of a federal witness, as previously reported by the Deseret News.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announced Wedding’s arrest in social media posts Friday morning.
“As of this morning, the DOJ/FBI officially apprehended our SIXTH Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitive within the last year,” Patel wrote on X.
He later added that “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.”
In March 2025, Wedding was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, with a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest, according to NBC News.
He was also indicted on charges of arranging the killing of a witness in Colombia in order to avoid extradition to the U.S. in November 2025, according to The Associated Press.
Akil Davis, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said during a press conference that Wedding orchestrated “multiple murders of victims and government witnesses.” He noted that Wedding’s operation was responsible for shipping approximately 60 metric tons of cocaine through Southern California.
His arrest comes just two weeks before the Winter Olympics commence in Italy and nearly 24 years since he competed in his own Olympics.
Wedding competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where he finished 24th in the parallel giant slalom, according to The New York Times.
Wedding, a Canadian citizen, went by aliases like “El Jefe,” “Public Enemy” and “James Conrad Kin.”
Patel compared Wedding to a modern-day El Chapo or a modern-day Pablo Escobar at a press conference, calling him the “largest narco-trafficker in modern times.”
The head of Canada’s federal police force assisted in the investigation leading to Wedding’s arrest, according to BBC News.
“No single agency or nation can combat transnational organized crime alone,” Mike Duheme, commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said at a press conference following Wedding’s arrest.
“We can finally say that our communities, our countries, are much safer with the arrest of Ryan Wedding,” he continued.
Patel and Bondi praised the efforts of the FBI investigators and help from partners, including Mexico’s government.
Bondi said that Wedding was flown to the U.S. following his arrest, “where he will face justice” for his actions.
