Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, who is alleged to have operated a drug trafficking ring and been involved in multiple murders, was seen being escorted by law enforcement after his arrest by the FBI on Friday. He was taken off a plane in handcuffs at Ontario International Airport in Southern California, under the watch of FBI agents, and will now face federal charges.
Wedding, 44, turned himself into authorities after negotiations, although details of that agreement remain unclear. Sources suggest he could no longer evade U.S. law enforcement after growing pressure mounted against him.
The FBI identifies Wedding as an extremely dangerous criminal, reportedly behind numerous murders abroad. He made the Ten Most Wanted list in March 2025, accused of running a drug trafficking operation that routinely moved hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico into Canada and the U.S.
Additionally, he is implicated in orchestrating various murders tied to his drug activities. Wedding and 14 accomplices were specifically accused of the murder of a witness at a restaurant in Colombia, where the victim was shot in January 2025. Allegedly, he had put a bounty on her life, believing it would help drop charges against himself and a drug lord he was supposedly working with.
Wedding’s athletic career included competing in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where he finished 24th in the men’s parallel giant slalom. Following his Olympic stint, he joined Simon Fraser University in Vancouver but later became linked to criminal activity.
His criminal past began surfacing in 2006 when he and another snowboarder were involved in a police investigation over a marijuana grow operation. However, no charges were filed then. In 2009, he faced his first arrest in the U.S. after trying to buy 24 kilograms of cocaine in California. He eventually received a four-year prison sentence after pledging to forfeit more than $121,000 from a drug bust.
Wedding was still on the run after new drug charges were filed in Nova Scotia in 2015 until his recent capture. It’s estimated that over $1 billion worth of cocaine was trafficked under his direction.
