Santa Ana, California — A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned top FBI fugitive is expected to appear in federal court Monday on charges of running a billion-dollar multinational corporation. Drug trafficking Loop and multi format Killings.
Ryan Wedding (44 years old) surrendered himself to the US Embassy in Mexico City last week and was He was flown to Southern California After a year-long effort by authorities in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Colombia and the Dominican Republic to arrest him.
Wedding is scheduled to make his first appearance in federal court in Santa Ana, California. No lawyer was listed for him in court Monday morning.
US authorities believe the former Olympian who competed in one event for his home country at the 2002 Winter Olympics In Salt Lake CityHe had been hiding in Mexico for more than a decade. He was added to the FBI Top ten most wanted fugitives The list last March when authorities offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
Authorities say Wedge transported up to 60 tons of cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Canada and Southern California, and believe he was working under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel. One of the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico.
He was indicted in 2024 on federal charges of running a criminal enterprise, murder, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and other crimes.
The murder charges accuse Wedding of directing the killing of two members of a Canadian family in 2023 in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment, and of ordering the killing over drug debts in 2024. Last year, Wedding was indicted on new charges of orchestrating the killing of a witness in Colombia to help him avoid extradition to the United States.
Wedge was previously convicted in the United States of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and sentenced to prison in 2010. Online records show he was released from Bureau of Prisons custody in 2011.
In Canada, Wedding faces separate drug charges dating back to 2015.
The 2024 indictment says Wedding ran a billion-dollar drug trafficking ring that was the largest supplier of cocaine to Canada. The indictment stated that the group obtained cocaine from Colombia and worked with Mexican cartels to transport the drugs by boat and plane to Mexico and then to the United States using semi-trucks. She added that the group stored cocaine in Southern California before sending it to Canada and other US states.