Fugitive Ex-Olympian Ryan Wedding Is Arrested

Ryan Wedding, a Canadian former Olympic snowboarder 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. The 44-year-old, who competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics, was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list and authorities had offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

• US Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed Wedding's arrest in social media posts, the AP reports. Patel said Wedding was being transported to the US after being apprehended Thursday night in Mexico, where US authorities believe he had been hiding for more than a decade.

At a news conference in California on Friday morning with his Canadian counterpart, RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme, Patel said Wedding's arrest was the result of international cooperation and praised Mexico's government and "global partnerships" for their roles in the operation. Patel held meetings in Mexico on Thursday and left Friday with two detainees, Mexico's Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch wrote on X. He said the two detainees were a Canadian citizen who turned himself in at the US embassy, as well as someone else who was among the FBI's most-wanted and had been detained by Mexican authorities. A member of Mexico's Security Cabinet, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that Wedding was the Canadian citizen who turned himself in.

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" and "Public Enemy. In November, US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Wedding had also been indicted on charges of orchestrating the killing of a witness in Colombia to help him avoid extradition to the US. He had been on the run since 2015, when the Mounties sought to arrest him on cocaine trafficking charges, the CBC reports. Authorities say he has been linked to dozens of murders. Last month, Mexican authorities seized a cache of high-end motorcycles believed to belong to Wedding. This story has been updated with new developments.