Ryan Wedding, the former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who is accused of sitting atop an international drug trafficking empire, was arrested Thursday in Mexico.
Wedding, 44, is accused of being a member of the Sinaloa Cartel, and “running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on social media.
Wedding stands accused of masterminding and participating in the shipment of millions of dollars’ worth of drugs from Colombia through Mexico and on into the United States and Canada.
Attorney General Pam Bondi says that Wedding will be extradited from Mexico to the United States to stand trial.
“Director Patel has worked tirelessly to bring fugitives to justice,” Bondi said. “We are grateful to our incredible Ambassador Ron Johnson and the Mexican authorities for assisting us in this case.”
Wedding found himself added to the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list earlier this year. Authorities attached a $15 million reward to entice people to come forward with information leading to his arrest.
A grand jury indictment, unsealed in November, charged Wedding with the death of a federal witness who was set to testify against him. The indictment further claims that Wedding put a bounty on the witness’s head and used a Canadian internet site to find the witness and his wife.
Wedding’s criminal enterprise began in 2008, six years after he represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
According to prosecutors, Wedding traveled to San Diego with two other men to buy cocaine. The person who Wedding ended up buying from, however, turned out to be an FBI informant.
Wedding was arrested and found guilty of conspiracy to distribute cocaine following in late 2009 trial. Though he was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison, he was released in December 2011.
Court documents state that Wedding began building his criminal enterprise soon after his release.
Authorities in Mexico were hot on the trail of Wedding in recent months, having seized millions of dollars’ worth of motorcycles and Olympic medals, all believed to belong to Wedding.
It is believed that the Sinaloa Cartel was protecting Wedding in Mexico.