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01/23 09:19 CST Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder on the FBI's 'Most
Wanted' list, has been arrested
Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder on the FBI's 'Most Wanted' list, has
been arrested
By ERIC TUCKER, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MIKE BALSAMO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) --- Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder for Canada who
was among the FBI's top fugitives and faces charges related to multi-national
drug trafficking and the killing of a federal witness, was arrested Friday, two
people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Wedding, 44, is accused of running a drug trafficking operation, and officials
say he orchestrated several killings to further the drug crimes. He 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.
Wedding's arrest was confirmed by two people familiar with matter who were not
authorized to discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on
condition of anonymity.
The arrest is expected to be announced later Friday morning at a news
conference with FBI Director Kash Patel in California. Wedding was apprehended
in Mexico, one official said.
The FBI released a new photo of Wedding last month and said it was believed to
have been taken over the summer in Mexico.
Wedding competed for his home country, Canada, in the 2002 Winter Olympics in
Salt Lake City.
He 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," "Public Enemy" and "James Conrad Kin."
In November, U.S. 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 U.S.
Authorities said Wedding and co-conspirators used a Canadian website called
"The Dirty News" to post a photograph of the witness so he could be identified
and killed. The witness was then followed to a restaurant in Medelln in
January and shot in the head.
Wedding faces separate drug trafficking charges in Canada that date back to
2015, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Wedding was previously convicted in the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute
cocaine and was sentenced to prison in 2010, federal records show.
