Former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding ceremony, an alleged drug kingpin who’s been accused of orchestrating a number of murders, was arrested in Mexico and brought to the USA, Justice Division officers introduced Friday.
Wedding ceremony, a 44-year-old Canadian nationwide, was taken into custody in Mexico Metropolis on Thursday night time, FBI Director Kash Patel stated at a information convention at Southern California’s Ontario Worldwide Airport east of Los Angeles. In the course of the information convention, Patel gestured to a airplane behind him and instructed reporters Wedding ceremony had been taken off the airplane.
An FBI official in Los Angeles instructed CBS Information the U.S. authorities airplane carrying Wedding ceremony landed on the airport from Mexico at roughly 8 a.m. native time Friday.
In a video clip offered by the FBI, a handcuffed Wedding ceremony is seen sporting denims, sneakers, a sweatshirt, a vest and a baseball cap strolling down a stairway from the airplane flanked by FBI brokers. One other clip exhibits Wedding ceremony and authorities strolling away from the airplane.
Ryan Wedding ceremony, heart, is escorted by federal authorities after arriving at Ontario Worldwide Airport in Southern California, Jan. 23, 2026.
FBI
“Simply to inform you how unhealthy of a man Ryan Wedding ceremony is, he went from an Olympic snowboarder to the biggest narco-trafficker in fashionable instances,” Patel stated. “He’s a modern-day ‘El Chapo,’ he’s a modern-day Pablo Escobar, and he thought he may evade justice.”
“El Chapo” is an alias for Joaquin Guzman, a onetime chief of the infamous Mexican drug ring often known as the Sinaloa Cartel who’s serving a life sentence within the U.S. In keeping with the FBI, Wedding ceremony additionally used aliases, together with “El Jefe,” “Large” and “Public Enemy.”
Patel additionally stated one other fugitive who was arrested in Mexico final week, Alejandro Rosales Castillo, was dropped at the U.S. on the identical airplane as Wedding ceremony and can be taken east later Friday. Patel stated Castillo’s arrest wasn’t associated to Wedding ceremony’s apprehension.
Patel instructed reporters he was in Mexico on a beforehand deliberate journey. He stated the Mexican authorities labored with the U.S. to apprehend Wedding ceremony.
“This was an incredible operation that got here collectively by interagency success,” Patel stated.
FBI Director Kash Patel broadcasts the apprehension of Ryan Wedding ceremony, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wished Fugitive checklist, throughout a press convention in Ontario, California, U.S., January 23, 2026.
Mike Blake / REUTERS
Patel stated he would not present further particulars about Wedding ceremony’s arrest “to safeguard the integrity of the continuing investigation.” He declined to touch upon the $15 million reward that was being provided by the U.S. for Wedding ceremony.
When officers elevated the reward in November, U.S. Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi described Wedding ceremony’s alleged operation as “one of the crucial prolific and violent drug-trafficking organizations on this world.”
The Justice Division stated it expects Wedding ceremony’s arraignment to happen on Monday afternoon in Los Angeles.
Akil Davis, the assistant director in command of the FBI’s Los Angeles subject workplace, stated investigators labored for over a 12 months to arrest Wedding ceremony. “Ryan Wedding ceremony tormented a number of individuals and a number of other households that can by no means be the identical, however in the present day, they get the justice that they sought,” Davis stated.
A reward poster for the arrest of Ryan James Wedding ceremony is seen following a information convention on the Justice Division on Nov. 19, 2025 in Washington, D.C.
Andrew Harnik / Getty Photos
Wedding ceremony, who competed within the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake Metropolis, has been accused of working a significant drug trafficking community that moved cocaine from Colombia by Mexico to the U.S. and Canada. Patel stated in a social media put up Friday that Wedding ceremony was working his alleged operation as a member of the Sinaloa Cartel, and that Wedding ceremony was believed to have been hiding out in Mexico for over a decade.
Wedding ceremony was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wished Fugitives checklist final 12 months.
In November, Wedding ceremony was accused of inserting a “multimillion-dollar bounty” on a federal witness who was concerned in a narcotics case towards him.
In keeping with the FBI, Wedding ceremony and his second-in-command Andrew Clark, 34, allegedly additionally ordered the killings of two members of a Canadian household in 2023 in retaliation for a stolen drug cargo.
Clark was extradited to the U.S. from Mexico final 12 months.
The pair are additionally accused of directing the killing of one other particular person in 2024 over a drug debt, in accordance with the FBI.
Ryan Wedding ceremony is seen in an image the FBI says was taken in 2025.
Anna Schecter and
Chelsea Hylton
contributed to this report.