Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, a reputed cartel-linked drug boss accused of overseeing a vast cocaine pipeline and dozens of murders, has turned himself in to authorities in Mexico.
After more than a decade on the run, Wedding, 44, was arrested Thursday night in Mexico City and flown to California, U.S. officials said.
A member of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, Wedding was sanctioned in November by the U.S. Treasury Department, which, along with other U.S. agencies, has collaborated with the Mexican government on the case.
Labeled an “extremely violent criminal,” he was said to be hiding in Mexico. At the time, a reward leading to his arrest and conviction was raised from US $10 million to US $15 million.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed this week’s arrest, saying Wedding faces charges that include drug trafficking, money laundering, murder and the killing of a federal witness.
Federal prosecutors say he ran a transnational network that moved semitrailer loads of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico to the United States and Canada — at times under the protection of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.
“This is a huge day for a safer North America, and the world, and a message that those who break our laws and harm our citizens will be brought to justice,” Patel wrote Friday morning on X.
At a news conference Friday in Ontario, California, he described Wedding as a “modern day Pablo Escobar” and “modern-day El Chapo” who “thought he could evade justice.”
Mexican officials said Wedding’s capture capped years of cooperation as authorities tracked his operations and his lavish life in hiding.
Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch wrote on X that Patel visited Mexico City on Thursday for meetings with federal security and prosecutorial agencies and then departed “taking with him two priority targets.”
The other person was referred to by Patel only by his last name, Castillo. According to law enforcement sources, that would appear to be fugitive Alejandro Castillo, another man among the FBI’s 10 most wanted for the 2016 murder of his ex-girlfriend in North Carolina.
Taken into custody in the state of Hidalgo, he allegedly crossed into Mexico two months after the murder but as of Friday was labeled as “captured” on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.
As for Wedding, U.S. and Mexican authorities say he lived in Mexico for more than a decade while directing a network that allegedly imported about 60 tonnes of cocaine a year into Los Angeles and supplied an estimated $1 billion in cocaine annually to Canada.
FBI Director Kash Patel announces the capture of Ryan Wedding, a former Olympian and accused drug lord, after years on the run.
“Just to tell you how bad of a guy Ryan Wedding is, he went from an Olympic snowboarder to the largest narco trafficker in modern times,” Patel said.… pic.twitter.com/GZgAFQqvd5
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 23, 2026
Investigators say he did so while enjoying a “colorful and flashy” lifestyle, protected by cartel allies and supported by front companies and luxury assets scattered around Mexico City.
Mexican officials announced in December that they had seized about $40 million in high-end racing motorcycles linked to Wedding, along with luxury vehicles, artwork, drugs and two Olympic medals in raids across the capital.
Earlier, U.S. authorities had impounded a rare 2002 Mercedes CLK‑GTR hypercar valued at roughly $13 million.
Patel said the operation was the result of “tremendous cooperation and teamwork with the Government of Mexico,” singling out President Claudia Sheinbaum, García Harfuch and U.S. Ambassador Ron Johnson.
García Harfuch said the joint work, grounded in “respect and shared responsibility,” will continue to target violent groups affecting both countries.
Wedding, who competed in the parallel giant slalom at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and finished 24th, is expected to appear Monday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Authorities say he also faces separate Canadian drug trafficking charges dating to 2015.
With reports from El Universal, Associated Press and BBC
