Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder now facing serious accusations of cocaine trafficking, was apprehended in Mexico and is currently being extradited to the United States, according to confirmation from the FBI.
The arrest, which took place on Thursday night, was initially reported by NBC. Wedding, a 44-year-old Canadian, has been under FBI scrutiny for allegedly managing a transnational drug operation that reportedly smuggled approximately 60 metric tons of cocaine into Southern California each year, a claim previously highlighted by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
FBI Director Kash Patel had previously likened Wedding to notorious drug lords Pablo Escobar and Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, underscoring the severity of the charges against him.
In 2024, Wedding was charged with eight felonies, including three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. By November 2025, a grand jury had unsealed an indictment linking him to the murder of a federal witness who was slated to testify against him. This witness was reportedly assassinated at a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, after Wedding allegedly placed a bounty on his head through a Canadian website, as per authorities.
The FBI had recently increased the reward for information leading to Wedding’s capture to $15 million, though it remains uncertain if anyone will claim this reward. Details surrounding his arrest are yet to be disclosed, but a news conference is set for Friday morning where Patel, Bondi, and members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) will provide further updates on this significant development.
The FBI recently upped its reward for information on Wedding to $15 million after the snowboarder spent close to a decade on the run. It is unclear if that money will be awarded to anyone. Likewise, details about Wedding’s apprehension have not yet been revealed. A Friday morning news conference is scheduled for Patel, Bondi and members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to brief the public about the long-awaited arrest.
Accused cocaine trafficker and former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding has been arrested and is now in custody, two law enforcement officials told NBC News on Friday
Last month, federal authorities released a photo of a shirtless Wedding laying in his bed
Wedding represented Canada during the Winter Olympics in 2002 but he did not win a medal
Patel took the opportunity to credit President Donald Trump for Wedding’s arrest.
‘Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and commitment to global law enforcement – as of this morning, the DOJ/FBI officially apprehended our SIXTH Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitive within the last year,’ Patel wrote on X. ‘Thank you to @AGPamBondi for her relentless pursuit of justice, the US Attorney’s Office in L.A., and FBI Los Angeles.’
The FBI’s pursuit of Wedding had been gathering momentum for some time.
A month ago, the FBI released never-before-seen photos of a $40 million seizure of motorbikes believed to be owned by Wedding. Among the items seized were 62 motorbikes.
Alongside the images, a statement from the FBI read: ‘This month, Mexican authorities executed multiple search warrants and seized a large number of motorcycles with an estimated value of approximately $40 million USD believed to be owned by FBI’s Top Ten Fugitive Ryan James Wedding.
‘This successful seizure is a result of collaborative efforts among Mexican authorities, the FBI, @RCMP and @LAPDHQ.’
While not verified, speculation on social media claimed that some of the motorbikes have a famous history, potentially even being ridden by Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez in MotoGP.
Also in the recent haul, FBI agents found two vehicles, two Olympic medals, methamphetamine, marijuana, works of art, and ammunition.
It is not clear who the medals belong to, given Wedding finished 24th in the parallel giant slalom at his sole Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.
The Canadian citizen believed to be living in Mexico was considered armed and dangerous
The US Treasury Department recently claimed Wedding has built a ‘complex web’ of assets to hide his wealth, using luxury cars, motorcycles, properties, cryptocurrency and front businesses.’
In November, Patel said Wedding was responsible for ‘engineering a narco trafficking and narco terrorism program that we have not seen in a long time.’
Bondi has said that the drug kingpin ‘controls one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in the world.’
The authorities have also said there was ‘some evidence’ Wedding had undergone cosmetic surgery to alter his appearance and further evade detection.
Earlier this month, the FBI added an alleged Wedding accomplice, Bianca Canastillo-Madrid, to its ‘Wanted’ list. She was subject of a federal arrest warrant after being charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to export cocaine and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
Wedding was wanted by the FBI with the organization offering $15 million for information
Roughly 201 kilos of cocaine are seen after allegedly being confiscated from Wedding’s drug-trafficking operation. The seizure took place in 2025, prior to Wedding’s arrest this week
A native of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Wedding became a competitive snowboarder as a teenager before going on to compete at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, where he finished 24th in the men’s parallel giant slalom.
Afterwards he got into bodybuilding, real estate speculation and allegedly began growing marijuana at a 6,800-plant warehouse that was later raided by the RCMP.
However, Wedding was not at the property at the time and evaded prosecution due to a lack of evidence.
He’s further accused of partnering with Iranian and Russian cocaine smugglers and in 2010, was convicted of trying to buy the drug from an undercover U.S. government agent. He was sentenced to four years in prison and released in 2011.
FBI director Kash Patel labeled the ex-Olympian a ‘modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar’
Among the items seized by the Mexican government were 62 motorbikes and Olympic medals
Two Olympic medals were also found by the FBI, despite Wedding finishing 24th in his Games
Wedding was charged as part of the US government’s Operation Giant Slalom in 2024 with leading an alleged cocaine trafficking cartel and murder.
Along with his alleged accomplice Andrew Clark, Wedding is alleged to have ordered the murders of married couple Jagtar Sidhu, 57, and Harbhajan Sidhu, 55, in November of 2023 as well as 39-year-old Mohammed Zafar in May of 2024 and a federal witness in Colombia in January of 2025.
The Sidhus were believed to have been killed over a stolen shipment of drugs, although Ontario Provincial Police Detective-Inspector Brian McDermott said in 2024 the assassins ‘shot the wrong people.’
Their daughter, Jaspreet Kaur Sidhu, 28, was also shot 13 times in the attack, but survived.
‘My father was shot in front of me,’ she told CBS News in 2024. ‘I heard my mother’s last screams. After that, there was complete silence. Only the noises of gunshots.’
