FBI arrests Canadian Olympian Ryan Wedding in Mexico

Jan. 23 (UPI) -- The FBI arrested former Canadian Olympian Ryan Wedding on Friday in Mexico, scratching off a suspect from the agency's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitive list, FBI Director Kash Patel said.

Patel announced Wedding's arrest in a post on the social media platform X.

"Ryan James Wedding was taken into custody in Mexico last night," Patel said. "He is being transported from Mexico to the U.S. ... to face justice."

The United States' manhunt for Wedding for more than a year. The Justice Department indicted him on cocaine trafficking and murder charges in October 2024 and added him to the FBI's most wanted list in March. The State Department offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

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In November, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced a government-wide intensification in its hunt for Wedding. She accused him of importing 60 metric tons of cocaine into Los Angeles.

"He controls one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in the world," she said at the time.

Patel said U.S. officials believe Wedding had been hiding in Mexico for more than a decade with the protection of the Sinaloa cartel.

"He was allegedly running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California to the United States and Canada -- as a member of the Sinaloa Cartel," Patel said.

Patel said Wedding was the sixth person on the Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list captured within the past year.

Wedding was a competitive snowboarder who represented Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

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