Disgraced former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding was seen in the United States for the first time since his arrest, arriving in Southern California in handcuffs Friday to face murder and drug trafficking charges.
Dramatic video showed the Canadian athlete-turned-alleged drug kingpin being escorted off a plane at Ontario International Airport in San Bernardino County by FBI agents. Wearing jeans, a black vest, and a Los Angeles cap, Wedding kept his head down as federal authorities led him across the tarmac.
Wedding, who represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics, is suspected of involvement in multiple murders linked to what authorities describe as a large-scale narcotics empire. The 44-year-old had been on the run for more than a decade and was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list in March 2025.
The FBI announced earlier Friday that Wedding had been captured in Mexico, calling the arrest a major blow to an international criminal organization. The announcement came during a joint press conference with the LAPD, DEA, and Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
“When you go after a guy like Ryan Wedding, it takes a united front, and that’s what you’re seeing here,” FBI Director Kash Patel said.
Wedding, who allegedly used multiple aliases including “El Jefe,” “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” “James Conrad King,” and “Jesse King,” reportedly turned himself in at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, according to the Associated Press.
He is scheduled to appear in court Monday on multiple charges, including running a criminal enterprise, murder, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and other serious offenses.
“To tell you how bad of a guy Ryan Wedding is, he went from an Olympic snowboarder to one of the largest narco traffickers in modern times,” Patel told reporters, calling him a modern-day El Chapo.
Federal authorities named the investigation “Operation Giant Slalom,” after the event Wedding competed in at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, where he finished 24th in the parallel giant slalom before retiring from competitive snowboarding.
Wedding was previously arrested in San Diego in June 2008, convicted in federal court in 2009, and released from prison in 2011. He competed internationally for Canada’s snowboarding team from 1997 to 2002.
