JUST IN: Disgraced Olympian-Turned-Most-Wanted Fugitive Ryan Wedding Finally Nabbed by FBI

(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

The Department of Justice has confirmed that it has finally arrested disgraced former Olympian and alleged cocaine kingpin Ryan Wedding, who was one of the FBI’s 10 most-wanted fugitives.

Attorney General Pam Bondi posted to X on Friday, “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. 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 Associated Press reported Friday that the 44-year-old Wedding was arrested in Mexico. Authorities had offered a $15 million reward for information leading to Wedding’s arrest and conviction.

Wedding competed for his home country of Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, UT, before allegedly turning to a life of crime some six years later.

“Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of U.S. cities and in his native Canada,” the assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office said in March.

Wedding is accused of running a drug trafficking ring with Mexican cartels and allegedly orchestrating “several killings to further the drug crimes,” the report said.

He was charged in 2024 with moving cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Southern California, and Canada under the aliases “El Jefe,” “Public Enemy,” and “James Conrad Kin.” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in November that Wedding had also been indicted “on charges of orchestrating the killing of a witness in Colombia to help him avoid extradition to the U.S,” the AP reported.

Wedding was previously arrested in 2008 and spent 48 months in federal prison for a “drug deal gone wrong” in San Diego. At the time, Wedding expressed regret for making “stupid and irresponsible decisions.”

“I knew it was wrong, and I did it anyway,” he said, according to court documents. “In the past 24 months I’ve spent in custody, I’ve had an opportunity to see firsthand what drugs do to people, and honestly, I’m ashamed that I became a part of the problem for years. I guess I lost my way.”

This is a developing story and has been updated.

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