‘Violent Cocaine Kingpin’: FBI Arrests Former Olympic Snowboarder After Years On The Lam

Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug trafficker Ryan Wedding has been arrested.

Attorney General Pam Bondi praised President Trump’s “law and order leadership” for helping to make the arrest possible. 

“At my direction, Department of Justice agents @FBI have apprehended yet another member of the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted List: Ryan Wedding, the onetime Olympian snowboarder-turned alleged violent cocaine kingpin,” Bondi wrote in an X post. “Wedding was flown to the United States where he will face justice. This is a direct result of President Trump’s law-and-order leadership. Under @POTUS, criminals have no safe harbor.”

The AG went on to thank FBI director Kash Patel, Ambassador Ron Johnson, and Mexican authorities for their assistance to capture one of the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” fugitives.

Patel also posted about Wedding’s capture, adding in some details about the former Olympian’s alleged crimes. 

“Wedding is believed to have been hiding in Mexico for over a decade – and has been wanted on charges for cocaine trafficking and murder since 2024,” Patel wrote.

“He was allegedly running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California to the United States and Canada – as a member of the Sinaloa Cartel.”

The FBI director also praised President Trump’s leadership and strong law and order stance. “This is the SIXTH Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitive this FBI has captured within a year – fugitives who had been on the run for almost 40 years combined. That’s no accident. President Trump is letting good cops be cops and the results speak for themselves,” he wrote on X. 

“This is a huge day for a safer North America, and the world, and a message that those who break our laws and harm our citizens will be brought to justice.”

Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and commitment to global law enforcement – as of this morning, the DOJ/FBI officially apprehended our SIXTH Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitive within the last year. Thank you to @AGPamBondi for her relentless pursuit of justice, the US Attorney’s… pic.twitter.com/fnSP4IXQRI

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) January 23, 2026

Wedding, who competed at the 2002 Olympics, was arrested in 2008 and accused of conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine after being part of a sting operation, per CNN. His case went to trial, and he was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison.

The latest indictment says that Wedding’s latest drug crimes began in 2011, after he was released from jail. Along with drug trafficking, Wedding is accused of murdering multiple people over drug feuds.