FBI Director Kash Patel, during a press conference on the tarmac at Ontario International Airport, said the capture of Ryan Wedding, 44, resulted from a manhunt.
Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, a top FBI fugitive, was arrested in Mexico and on Friday flown to the U.S. to face charges related to running a multinational drug trafficking ring and the killing of a federal witness.
FBI Director Kash Patel, during a press conference on the tarmac at Ontario International Airport, said the capture of Wedding, 44, resulted from a manhunt by U.S. investigators who worked with authorities in Mexico, Canada, Colombia and the Dominican Republic for more than a year.
Wedding was escorted off of a U.S. Department of Justice Boeing 737 passenger jet Friday morning, Jan. 23, after it touched down at Ontario around 8 a.m. Wedding was then whisked away to a detention center that the FBI declined to disclose.
Wedding was previously convicted in the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to prison in 2010, federal records show. After his release from prison, federal prosecutors in 2024 charged Wedding with running a drug ring. Prosecutors said they believed he was working under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful drug rings.
Officials say he orchestrated several killings and used semitrucks to move cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Southern California and Canada. Authorities said his aliases included “El Jefe,” “Public Enemy” and “James Conrad Kin.”
“He’s the modern-day El Chapo. He is the modern-day Pablo Escobar,” Patel said, comparing him to the legendary former Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is imprisoned in the U.S. after pleading guilty to drug trafficking charges.
