Former Olympic snowboarder and accused cocaine trafficker Ryan Wedding has been arrested and is now in custody, two law enforcement officials told NBC News on Friday.
The 44-year-old Canadian had been wanted by the FBI for an alleged transnational drug ring that is said to bring around 60 metric tons of cocaine into Southern California annually, Attorney General Pam Bondi previously claimed.
Wedding had been compared to Pablo Escobar and Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán by FBI Director Kash Patel.
In total, Wedding was charged with eight felonies, including three counts of murder and one count of attempt to commit murder back in September of 2024. Then in November, a grand jury indictment against Wedding charged him with the death of a federal witness who was supposed to testify against the former snowboarder. That witness was shot and killed at a restaurant after Wedding ‘placed a bounty’ on his head with the help of a Canadian website.
The FBI recently upped its reward for information on Wedding to $15 million after the snowboarder spent close to a decade on the run from authorities.
A Friday morning news conference is scheduled for Patel, Bondi and members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police 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
Wedding represented Canada during the Winter Olympics in 2002 but he did not win a medal
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.
Wedding was wanted by the FBI with the organization offering $15 million for information
FBI director Kash Patel labeled the ex-Olympian a ‘modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar’
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 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.
