The fall of Ryan Wedding has taken another dramatic turn.
Freshly released footage shows the former Olympic snowboarder landing on US soil in handcuffs, marking the end of a decade-long disappearance that turned a onetime sports star into one of the FBI’s most wanted men.
A Familiar Face With an Infamous New Label
Wedding, now 44, once represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Years later, investigators say he was running something far removed from competitive sport — a vast, international drug empire allegedly worth billions.
US authorities have accused him of masterminding large-scale cocaine trafficking and ordering multiple killings along the way.
A Decade on the Run Comes to an End
For more than ten years, Wedding managed to stay out of reach while law enforcement agencies across the US, Canada and Mexico hunted him.
At one point, the FBI put a staggering $15 million reward on his head.
Despite that pressure, he was believed to be living in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The Moment He Reappeared
On Friday, a plane carrying Wedding touched down at Ontario International Airport in California.
Wearing jeans and a black cap, the former athlete stood noticeably taller than the FBI agents escorting him as he was led across the runway in handcuffs.
FBI director Kash Patel followed closely behind.
How the Arrest Unfolded
According to reports, Wedding turned himself in at the US embassy in Mexico City.
Mexico’s security secretary, Omar García Harfuch, confirmed that Patel had been in the country for meetings and departed with two detainees.
One of them, identified as a Canadian citizen, was later confirmed by the Associated Press to be Wedding.
Accusations of a Cocaine Pipeline Into California
Attorney General Pam Bondi says Wedding was wanted for allegedly running a transnational drug ring responsible for moving roughly 60 metric tons of cocaine into Southern California every year.
Patel compared him to Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the imprisoned former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.
A Criminal History That Didn’t End It
This isn’t Wedding’s first run-in with US justice.
He was previously convicted on cocaine distribution charges and served three and a half years of a four-year sentence.
But prosecutors say that didn’t stop him from returning to the drug trade on an even larger scale.
Murder Charges Add to the Case
In 2024, Wedding was charged with eight felony counts, including three murders.
Last November, a grand jury indictment was unsealed accusing him of killing a federal witness who was due to testify against him — a development that dramatically raised the stakes of the case.
Court Date Now Set
NBC first reported Wedding’s arrest, which took place Thursday night in Mexico City.
FBI officials confirmed on Friday that he is expected to make his first appearance before a US judge on Monday, bringing a once-unthinkable journey from Olympic athlete to alleged cartel figure squarely into the courtroom.
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