Ryan Wedding arrested: Olympian-turned-alleged drug lord captured, U.S. media reports

Ryan Wedding, a Canadian Olympian-turned-alleged cocaine kingpin, has been arrested, NBC News and CNN say.

The 44-year-old’s apprehension was announced Friday, law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation told those outlets. Global News has contacted the U.S. Department of Justice for comment.

The Thunder Bay, Ont., native, who FBI Director Kash Patel has labelled the “modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar,” is allegedly the kingpin of a drug empire that traffics 60 metric tons of cocaine across the Americas per year for US$1 billion in illegal proceeds.

Wedding, a snowboarder who was living in Coquitlam, B.C., when he suited up for his country at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list earlier this year.

The FBI has said Wedding, who has been reportedly living in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel, may have been changing his appearance and hair colour to avoid capture.

It wasn’t immediately clear how he was captured or when. A US$15-million bounty was issued by the U.S. State Department for information that led to his arrest or conviction.

The FBI and the RCMP are expected to hold a news conference later Friday morning.

He is facing several murder and drug charges. In November, Wedding was accused of ordering the murder of a federal witness before he could testify against him and Andrew Clark, his reported second-in-command.

That witness was eventually shot dead at a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, on Jan. 31.

Seven other Canadians reportedly connected to that slaying were arrested and charged. Among them was Wedding’s alleged lawyer, Deepak Paradkar, who American officials allege advised him to have the witness killed. An Ontario judge approved his bail release in December ahead of his extradition.

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Wedding and another Canadian citizen, who was arrested by Mexican authorities last fall, are accused of directing the Nov. 20, 2023, murders of two members of a family in Caledon, Ont., in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment.

Ontario Provincial Police have said the family was “completely innocent” and mistakenly targeted.

Wedding faces separate “unresolved” drug trafficking charges in Canada that date back to 2015, the RCMP said last October.

He was previously convicted in the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to prison in 2010, federal records show. U.S. authorities believe that after Wedding’s release, he resumed drug trafficking and has been protected by the Sinaloa Cartel.

To date, 36 people reportedly tied to Wedding’s operation have been arrested and charged, and several remain wanted.