Ryan Wedding ceremony, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who allegedly turned the pinnacle of a corporation that trafficked giant portions of medicine by way of L.A., was apprehended not too long ago in Mexico, U.S. officers introduced Friday.
Authorities stated Wedding ceremony, who was in hiding for greater than a decade and on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wished Fugitives” listing, was taken into custody in Mexico Metropolis Thursday evening and has been returned to the US. Two sources, who requested anonymity to debate the pending case publicly, instructed The Instances that Wedding ceremony negotiated his give up.
FBI Director Kash Patel and different officers introduced Wedding ceremony’s arrest at a information convention at Ontario Worldwide Airport on Friday morning.
“Simply to inform you how unhealthy of a man Ryan Wedding ceremony is, he went from an Olympic snowboarder to the most important narco trafficker in trendy occasions,” Patel stated. “He’s a modern-day El Chapo, he’s a modern-day Pablo Escobar. And he thought he may evade justice.”
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell stated Wedding ceremony’s alleged world drug trafficking group “used Los Angeles as its main level of distribution.”
McDonnell stated the efforts of authorities resulted within the seizure of greater than 2,300 kilograms of cocaine, 44 kilograms of methamphetamine, 44 kilograms of fentanyl, eight firearms and greater than $55 million in illicit belongings.
“Collectively, we have now disrupted a significant narcotics pipeline impacting Los Angeles, the US and Canada,” McDonnell stated. “It is a vital blow to a legal community that has endangered communities throughout borders.”
Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding ceremony faces federal expenses that accuse him of working a drug trafficking group and ordering the killing of a witness in opposition to him. (FBI)
Akil Davis, assistant director accountable for the Los Angeles FBI subject workplace, stated Wedding ceremony’s alleged group shipped roughly 60 metric tons of cocaine by way of Southern California on its option to Canada.
Authorities have arrested 36 individuals for his or her function within the transnational group and the treasury division has sanctioned 19 individuals, together with Wedding ceremony, in line with Davis.
Wedding ceremony allegedly turned a significant trafficker of cocaine into Canada and the US and a ruthless chief who ordered killings, together with one in all a witness in a 2024 federal narcotics case in opposition to him. The order resulted within the sufferer being shot to dying in a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, in January 2025, prosecutors stated.
“Ryan Wedding ceremony tormented a number of individuals and a number of other households that may by no means be the identical,” Davis stated. “However as we speak they get the justice that they sought.”
Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi beforehand stated Wedding ceremony’s operation was answerable for producing greater than $1 billion a 12 months in unlawful drug proceeds.
A federal indictment in opposition to Wedding ceremony alleges his group sourced its cocaine from Colombia, cooking and testing it in “cocaine kitchens” run collaboratively with a Colombian paramilitary group and drug cartel.
The so-called Wedding ceremony Prison Enterprise labored with Mexican cartels, using boats and planes to maneuver drug shipments from Colombia, then utilizing semitrucks to get the masses into the US, U.S. authorities charged. Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties typically served because the “hub” the place the group’s cocaine was saved earlier than being conveyed to ultimate locations in different elements of the U.S. and in Canada, in line with the indictment.
On Friday, Mexican Safety Minister Omar García Harfuch posted on X that Patel was returning to the U.S. with two precedence targets: “a non-U.S. one that was detained by Mexican authorities among the many FBI’s 10 most wished and a Canadian citizen who voluntarily surrendered” on the U.S. Embassy.
Wedding ceremony’s seize follows a mass switch of cartel suspects from Mexico to U.S. custody, with authorities south of the border handing over 37 inmates for prosecution. The Division of Justice stated the defendants embrace high-ranking members of the Jalisco New Era, Sinaloa and Gulf cartels.
Extraditions of high-level cartel suspects from Mexico have in previous eras taken years to perform. Now, because it faces strain from the Trump administration, the Mexican authorities has started transferring rapidly to expel some key figures outdoors of the usual course of.
Wedding ceremony was beforehand charged in a 2024 indictment with working a unbroken legal enterprise, assorted drug trafficking expenses and directing the murders of two members of a household in Canada in retaliation for a stolen drug cargo.
Authorities stated Wedding ceremony’s aliases included “El Jefe,” “Public Enemy” and “James Conrad Kin.”
Wedding ceremony competed for his residence nation, Canada, within the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake Metropolis.
Mexican officers final 12 months started handing over dozens of alleged cartel leaders going through expenses in U.S. federal courts, together with Andrew Clark, Wedding ceremony’s alleged lieutenant, who’s going through prosecution in Los Angeles.
In December, the New York Instances cited U.S. and Canadian courtroom paperwork that indicated Clark had began cooperating with authorities in opposition to his former boss. The information reportedly confirmed a witness believed to be Clark had “agreed to help U.S. authorities within the investigation of Wedding ceremony’s group.”
An lawyer for Clark didn’t reply to a request for remark Friday.
