FBI Director Kash Patel said Wedding was taken into custody on the night of Jan. 22 and was transported from Mexico to the United States by the FBI.
Former Canadian Olympian and alleged drug boss Ryan James Wedding is now in police custody after being arrested in Mexico City.
Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder who represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, is suspected of heading a transnational drug-trafficking operation and has been linked to several murders in North America, including at least four in Ontario.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Wedding was taken into custody on the night of Jan. 22 and was transported from Mexico to the United States by the FBI. He will be held in custody over the weekend and will appear in court on Jan. 26.
“[Wedding] went from an Olympic snowboarder to the largest narco-trafficker in modern times,” Patel said during a Jan. 23 press conference at Ontario International Airport near Los Angeles.
“This individual and his organization in the Sinaloa cartel, poured narcotics into the streets of North America and killed too many of our youth and corrupted too many of our citizens. And that ends today.”
Wedding, 44, was placed on the FBI’s “10 most-wanted” fugitives list last year after spending more than a decade on the run from authorities. A reward of up to US$15 million was issued last November for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
The former athlete is also known as “El Jefe,” “Giant,” and “Public Enemy,” and was described by Patel as “a modern day” El Chapo and Pablo Escobar. El Chapo is the former top leader of the Sinaloa cartel and Escobar is the Colombian drug lord who founded the Medellín cartel.
Patel said the arrest of Wedding in Mexico required an “interagency-wide effort” that included U.S. authorities as well as those in Mexico and the RCMP. He would not comment on if any tips leading to Wedding’s arrest would be eligible for the reward and also declined to offer details of the capture, citing “operational sensitivities.”
