SANTA ANA, Calif. — A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder pleaded not guilty to running a billion-dollar drug trafficking ring and carrying out multiple murders as one of the FBI’s top fugitives made his first U.S. court appearance Monday since he was arrested in Mexico last week and flown to California.
U.S. authorities say Ryan Wedding, who competed in the singles event for his country at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, had been hiding in Mexico for more than a decade. He was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list last March when authorities offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
Authorities say Wedding transported more than 60 tons of cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Canada and Southern California and believe he was operating under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful drug gangs.
According to a 2024 indictment in his home country, his drug trafficking group was the largest supplier of cocaine to Canada, where he faced separate drug charges in 2015.
Mexican authorities said he surrendered last week at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and was flown to Southern California after a yearlong effort by authorities in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Colombia and the Dominican Republic to arrest him.
Speaking to reporters Monday outside the federal courthouse in Santa Ana, southeast of Los Angeles, Wedding’s defense attorney Anthony Colombo disputed that his client had turned himself in to Mexico and said he was living in Mexico, not hiding there.
“He was arrested,” Colombo said after a brief hearing, giving no further details. “He did not surrender.”
Colombo said his client was in “good spirits”, but added that “it has been a whirlwind for Mr. Wedding.”
Federal prosecutors declined to comment after the hearing. The marriage was to take place in court on 11 February and the trial date was set for 24 March.
Wedding arrived at court wearing a tan prison jumpsuit and with chains at his ankles. He smiled briefly, then held up his hands and leaned back in his chair before reviewing the papers with his lawyer. When asked by U.S. Magistrate John D. Early if he had read the indictments filed against him, Wedding replied, “I have read them both, yes.”
The judge ordered his detention, saying he could not immediately find conditions that could ensure public safety or Wedding’s presence in court. The judge said he could consider bond if Wedding asked for it later.
Mexico has increasingly deported detained cartel members to the US as the country attempts to fend off escalating threats by President Donald Trump, who said last month that US forces would “now begin ground strikes” south of the border to target drug trafficking gangs.
Wedding was convicted in 2024 of federal charges of running a criminal enterprise, murder, conspiracy to distribute cocaine and other crimes.
On murder charges Wedding was accused of directing the murder of two members of a Canadian family in 2023 in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment and ordering a murder over a drug debt in 2024. Last year, Wedding was convicted on new charges of plotting to murder a witness in Colombia to help him avoid extradition to the US.
Wedding was previously convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine in the US and sentenced to life in prison in 2010. Online records show he was released from Bureau of Prisons custody in 2011.
In Canada, Wedding has been facing separate drug charges since 2015.
