Fugitive Olympian drug kingpin Ryan Wedding is in custody after years on FBI Most Wanted list

Accused murderer, cocaine trafficker and Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding was arrested on his way from Mexico to the United States

Wedding, 44, 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

FBI Director Kash Patel, compared Canadian believed to have risen to the top of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel over the last decade, to cartel’s imprisoned boss, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán 

Wedding was charged in 2024, with eight felonies, including three counts of murder and one count of attempt to commit murder

He was indicted in 2025, for the death of a federal witness, gunned down at a restaurant in Colombia, after Wedding ‘placed a bounty’ on his head

36 people have been arrested for their alleged role in the criminal organization, with $2 million bounty offered for information leading to additional arrests

Fugitive major cocaine trafficker, former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding has been arrested and is now in custody after eight years on the run, FBI revealed Friday

Accused murderer, cocaine trafficker and former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding has been arrested and is now in custody on his way from Mexico to the United States, the FBI has confirmed.   
NBC was the first to report the arrest, which took place in Mexico on Thursday night. 
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 is believed to have risen to the top of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel over the last decade and was compared by FBI director Kash Patel to that group’s imprisoned former leader, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán. 

The FBI recently upped its reward for information on Wedding to $15 million after the snowboarder spent close to a decade on the run

The fugitive was charged with eight felonies, including three counts of murder and one count of attempt to commit murder back in 2024. 
Then in November of 2025, a grand jury indictment against Wedding was unsealed, charging him with the death of a federal witness.
That witness was set to testify in a case against the former snowboarder in a federal drug trafficking case.
The witness was shot and killed at a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia after Wedding ‘placed a bounty’ on the witness and his wife, with the help of a Canadian website.
The fugitive drug lord is also facing separate drug charges in his home country, Canada.
Wedding will remain in custody and is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court on Monday, according to Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office.

Federal authorities on December 8, 2025, released this photo of a shirtless Ryan Wedding in his bed, believed to have been taken in Mexico, adding that there is ‘some evidence’ Wedding had undergone cosmetic surgery to alter his appearance and further evade detection  

The FBI recently upped its reward for information on Wedding to $15 million after the snowboarder spent over a decade on the run.
Before embarking on his alleged criminal enterprise, Wedding, whose alleged aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant” and “Public Enemy,” was a professional snowboarder and competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
So far, authorities have arrested 36 people for their alleged role in the criminal organization, but are still seeking more, Davis said. The FBI is offering a $2 million reward for information leading to those additional arrests, he said.

At the Winter Olympics in 2002, Wedding, [photo], represented Canada in the snow boarding event, however with a 24th place finish, he did mount the winners podium

FBI Director, Kass Patel also thanked Mexico for its cooperation in taking down Wedding.
‘This operation is the result of tremendous cooperation and team work (sic) with the Government of Mexico,’ Patel wrote on X. ‘Special thanks to our amazing partners in Mexico who facilitated this – President Sheinbaum, Secretary Harfuch, Ambassador Ron Johnson, Legat Mexico, and more. Our federal partners @TheJusticeDept @StateDept and more were also instrumental in this. Our HRT, CIRG, and aviation units did outstanding work.’
The FBI’s pursuit of Wedding had been gathering momentum for some time.  

Wedding was wanted by the FBI with the organization offering $15 million for information. However, authorities alleged that the drug lord has had surgery to alter his appearance  

The FBI in December, released previously unpublished images of a $40 million seizure of vehicles believed to be owned by Wedding. Among the items seized were 62 motorbikes

Officials say they seized guns, expensive cars, artwork and other items as part of the arrest. Two Olympic medals were also found by the FBI, despite Wedding finishing 24th in his Games

The FBI in December, released previously unpublished images of a $40 million seizure of vehicles believed to be owned by Wedding. Among the items seized were 62 motorcycles
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. 

This drug bust in 2025, netted 201 kilograms of cocaine allegedly seized from Wedding’s narco-trafficking operation

Authorities display some of the items seized after searching four properties owned by Wedding in Mexico

Multiple pieces of artwork were among the items seized by Mexican authorities executing search warrants against four property near Mexico City associated with fugitive drug lord

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. 

Since he took flight, Wedding, a Canadian citizen, is believed to be living in Mexico,becoming one of the biggest and dangerous players in global narco-trafficking 

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.

For FBI director, Kash Patel, former Olympic athlete, Ryan Wedding, [photo], is a ‘modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar’ 

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.