00:00Ryan Wedding was apprehended last night in Mexico City.
00:03Former Olympic snowboarder and alleged drug kingpin Ryan Wedding has been caught.
00:07This comes after the fugitive spent nearly a year on the lam after being accused of running
00:12a transnational drug trafficking enterprise, as well as for allegedly being involved in
00:17several murders. But who is Ryan Wedding? And how did he end up on the FBI's 10 most
00:21wanted fugitives list? Here's everything you need to know.
00:25Without getting into operational sensitivities,
00:27Ryan Wedding was apprehended last night in Mexico City. And to safeguard the integrity
00:32of the ongoing investigation, we will not go into that. But I think it goes without saying
00:37to go down to Mexico to find a guy who's been on the lam for multiple years for some of the
00:42most egregious crimes on planet Earth takes an interagency wide effort led out by President
00:46Trump, our DOJ and our partners in Mexico and very grateful for that partnership.
00:51Ryan Wedding, who's described as an extremely violent criminal, also goes by the name El
00:55Jefe, giant and public enemy. And according to the US Department of the Treasury's Office
01:00of Foreign Assets Control, is one of the most notorious criminals and narco traffickers out
01:05there. But before he became known as one of the world's biggest drug kingpins, Wedding
01:09competed as a snowboarder for Team Canada in the 2002 Olympics. The athlete, now 44 years
01:15old, participated in the men's parallel giant slalom at Salt Lake City, but he didn't come close to a
01:22medal. Switzerland's Philip Schock won gold in the event, Sweden's Richard Richardson won silver,
01:27and American Chris Klug took home the bronze. As for Wedding, he finished in 24th place.
01:33He didn't make a name for himself as a snowboarding phenom on the Olympic scene, but Wedding would soon
01:38become known to authorities for more nefarious activities. Starting in 2006, when he and another
01:44snowboarder were linked to a house in British Columbia in which investigators seized 6,800
01:49marijuana plants, according to Fox News. There were no charges in that case, but three years later,
01:56Wedding was arrested in the US when he allegedly tried to buy 24 kilograms of cocaine in California
02:02and went to prison for four years. Upon his release, he was once again tied to more drug charges
02:07before he went on the lam to avoid being captured by authorities. According to the outlet, it's believed he
02:13was working under the protection of the infamous Sinaloa cartel in Mexico and that he has trafficked
02:18over $1 billion in cocaine, allegedly smuggling 60 metric tons of cocaine into the US every year
02:24via semi trucks crossing into Southern California from Mexico, according to U.S. Attorney General Pam
02:30Bondi. To put that in perspective, 60 metric tons is approximately 40, the weight of 40 standard cars. Imagine
02:42that. That's how much cocaine, the weight of 40 cars he is bringing into our country a year.
02:51Then in November of 2025, Bondi held a press conference with FBI Director Cash Patel in which
02:56they put Wedding on blast for new charges, announcing their belief that the Olympian,
03:01turned drug kingpin, ordered the murder of a federal witness who was gunned down in a restaurant
03:06after publishing photographs of him and his wife. Wedding allegedly shared the photographs of the
03:11witness who was due to testify against him on a now-deleted website called The Dirty News.
03:16The witness was shot dead in a restaurant in Medellin, Colombia, according to the feds,
03:20as the DOJ charged Wedding with two additional counts of witness tampering and intimidation,
03:25money laundering, and drug trafficking. And the Department of State offered up to $15 million
03:30for information leading to his arrest and or conviction.
03:34I want to say this to Mr. Wedding and to the other defendants involved in his drug trafficking
03:40organization. Your days are numbered. Our agents and prosecutors will relentlessly pursue you
03:46and anyone who assists you and bring you to justice, not just anywhere, we're going to bring you
03:53justice in the United States of America. It looks like that justice is now being served.
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