Ex-Olympian Ryan Wedding arrested after being on FBI’s Most Wanted list

Former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, who was on the FBI’s top fugitives list, has been arrested, AP sources say.

Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics, landed on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list for allegedly ordering dozens of murders across the globe, including in the United States, Canada, and Latin America.

The 44-year-old is accused of running a drug trafficking operation, and officials say he orchestrated several killings to further the drug crimes.

Authorities had offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

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.

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.”

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi unveiled a new indictment against him in November 2025, accusing him of new murder, witness tampering and intimidation, money laundering, and drug trafficking charges.

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.