Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who allegedly became the head of a billion-dollar drug trafficking organization, has been apprehended by authorities, two sources told the Times.
Authorities said Wedding, who is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, become a major trafficker of cocaine into Canada and the United States, a ruthless leader of a criminal drug enterprise who allegedly issued an order to kill a witness in a 2024 federal narcotics case against him.
The order resulted in the victim being shot to death in a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, in January 2025, prosecutors said.
Wedding’s arrest is slated to be announced at a news conference in Ontario with FBI Director Kash Patel and other officials on Friday morning.
Last year, facing pressure from the Trump administration Mexican officials, began handing over dozens of alleged cartel leaders facing charges in U.S. federal courts, including Andrew Clark, Wedding’s alleged lieutenant, who is facing prosecution in Los Angeles.
Wedding’s capture follows another mass transfer of cartel suspects from Mexico to U.S. custody, with authorities south of the border handing over 37 inmates for prosecution. The Department of Justice said the defendants include high-ranking members of the Jalisco New Generation, Sinaloa and Gulf cartels.
Extraditions of high-level cartel suspect from Mexico have in past eras taken years to go through, but facing pressure from the Trump administration the Mexican government has began moving quickly to expel some key figures outside of the standard process.
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