Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, who was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, has been arrested, according to AP sources. The 44-year-old competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City before allegedly becoming the head of a drug trafficking operation linked to dozens of murders across the United States, Canada, and Latin America.
Wedding was charged in 2024 with running a drug ring that used semitrucks to transport cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Southern California, and Canada. Authorities said he used aliases including 'El Jefe,' 'Public Enemy,' and 'James Conrad Kin.' A new indictment in November 2025, unveiled by US Attorney General Pam Bondi, added charges of murder, witness tampering, intimidation, money laundering, and drug trafficking.
According to officials, Wedding and co-conspirators used a Canadian website called The Dirty News to post a photograph of a witness, who was later followed to a restaurant in Medellín in January and shot in the head. The US had offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
Wedding had a prior conviction in the US for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, for which he was sentenced to prison in 2010. He also faces separate drug trafficking charges in Canada dating back to 2015, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The arrest is expected to be announced at a news conference with FBI Director Kash Patel in California.
