SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder pleaded not guilty to running a billion-dollar business drug trafficking ring and orchestrate multiple murdersas one of the FBI’s top fugitives made his first appearance in U.S. court Monday since he was arrested in Mexico last week and flown to California.
U.S. authorities say Ryan Wedding, who competed for his home country in one event at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake Cityhad been in hiding in Mexico for more than ten years. He was assigned to the FBI Ten most wanted fugitives ruse last March when authorities offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
Authorities say Wedding transported as much as 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 Mexico’s most powerful drug gangs.
His drug trafficking group was the largest supplier of cocaine to Canada, according to a 2024 indictment in his home country, where he faces separate drug charges dating back to 2015.
Mexican officials said he turned himself in last week at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and did so flew to Southern California after a years-long effort by authorities in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Colombia and the Dominican Republic to arrest him.
Speaking to reporters Monday outside federal court in Santa Ana, south of Los Angeles, Wedding’s attorney, Anthony Colombo, disputed that his client had turned himself in in Mexico, saying he was living in Mexico and not hiding there.
“He was arrested,” Colombo said after the brief hearing, without providing further details. “He did not surrender.”
Colombo said his client was in “good spirits” but added that “this has been a whirlwind for Mr. Wedding.”
Federal prosecutors declined to comment after the hearing. Wedding was scheduled to appear in court again on February 11 and a trial date was set for March 24.
Wedding arrived in court wearing a brown prison jumpsuit with his ankles shackled. He smiled slightly, folded his hands together and leaned back in his chair before reviewing the papers with his lawyer. When U.S. Magistrate John D. Early asked if he had read the charges against him, Wedding replied, “I have read them both, yes.”
The judge ordered him into custody, saying he could not immediately find conditions that would guarantee public safety or Wedding’s appearance in court. He said he might consider a bond if Wedding requests one later.
Mexico has sent more and more incarcerated cartel members to the US as the country tries to offset growing threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, who said last month that U.S. troops “will now begin attacking land” south of the border to target drug smuggling gangs.
Wedding was indicted in 2024 on federal charges of operating a criminal enterprise, murder, conspiracy to distribute cocaine and other crimes.
The murder indictment accuses Wedding of directing the murders of two members of a Canadian family in 2023 in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment, and of ordering the murder over a drug debt in 2024. Last year, Wedding was indicted on new charges of orchestrating the murder of a witness in Colombia to help him avoid extradition to the US.
Wedding was previously convicted in the US of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and sentenced to prison in 2010. Online records show he was released from Bureau of Prisons custody in 2011.
The 2024 Canadian indictment alleges that Wedding’s group obtained cocaine from Colombia and worked with Mexican cartels to transport drugs by boat and plane to Mexico and then to the U.S. using semi-trucks, the indictment said. It says the group stored cocaine in Southern California before shipping it to Canada and other U.S. states.
