By ERIC TUCKER, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MIKE BALSAMO, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — 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 Medellín 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.
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