Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder and alleged drug kingpin Ryan Wedding has been arrested in Mexico and will be extradited to the US after years on the run, FBI Director Kash Patel has said.
Wedding, who had been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, is accused of running a transnational drug trafficking operation that moved tonnes of cocaine across international borders.
Wedding, 44, was also wanted on murder charges. US officials had stated they believed Wedding was living in Mexico under the Sinaloa drug cartel's protection.
The head of Canada's federal police force, which assisted in the investigation, spoke alongside Patel to praise the law enforcement operation. No single agency or nation can combat transnational organized crime alone, said Mike Duheme, Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). We can finally say that our communities, our countries, are much safer with the arrest of Ryan Wedding, he added.
Wedding is expected to make his first court appearance on Monday.
Wedding is accused of running a vast drug trafficking operation responsible for importing some 60 metric tonnes of cocaine a year. The organization operated across North America, as well as several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and was also the largest supplier of cocaine to Canada, bringing in an estimated $1 billion a year.
Before his arrest, Wedding was accused of killing a federal witness in a case against him. Officials say he has also ordered the murders of several others, putting him at the helm of a significant crime operation.
Wedding faces a slew of felony charges including witness tampering, intimidation, murder, money laundering, and drug trafficking. He had previously been the subject of a $15 million reward offered by the FBI for information leading to his arrest, although Patel declined to comment on whether anyone would claim that reward.
Reports suggest that Wedding was living luxuriously in Mexico, with authorities having recently seized $40 million worth of racing motorcycles, other valuable items, and two Olympic gold medals believed to belong to him. However, Wedding competed in the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City without winning any medals.
The report by Patel drawing parallels between Wedding and notorious drug leaders such as Pablo Escobar highlights the severity of the situation. His aliases, including El Jefe and Giant, suggest his notoriety in the underground drug scene. Following his release from U.S. federal prison in 2011, where he was serving a sentence for cocaine distribution, officials allege that he expanded his operation dramatically, leading to widespread violence and murder linked to his cartel.
Wedding's recent arrest underscores the continued efforts of law enforcement agencies to disrupt major drug trafficking operations, emphasizing the importance of international cooperation in these efforts.
