Ryan Wedding, a 44-year-old former Canadian Olympian who competed in snowboarding at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, finishing 24th in parallel giant slalom, has been arrested in Mexico after years as a fugitive.
Once a promising athlete from a middle-class family, Wedding is accused of transforming into a major transnational drug trafficker, allegedly leading a network that shipped over 60 metric tons of cocaine annually from Colombia through Mexico into the United States and Canada, in close partnership with the Sinaloa Cartel.
“To tell you how bad of a guy Ryan Wedding is, he went from an Olympic snowboarder to the largest narco traffickers in modern times,” FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters. “He’s a modern-day El Chapo, he is a modern-day Pablo Escobar, and he thought he could evade justice.”
Federal charges include drug trafficking, money laundering, and ordering multiple murders — including the 2023 killings of two Canadian family members over a stolen shipment and the 2025 assassination of a witness in Colombia.
Previously convicted in 2010 of cocaine conspiracy and serving four years in a U.S. prison, Wedding evaded capture since 2015, earning a spot on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list in 2025 with a reward reaching $15 million.
He was taken into custody in Mexico City on Thursday, reportedly surrendering, and arrived in California on Friday, escorted off a plane in handcuffs by FBI agents.
The investigation, dubbed Operation Giant Slalom, has resulted in 36 arrests and major asset seizures.
