Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, who is accused of running a billion-dollar multinational drug trafficking ring and carrying out multiple killings, pleaded not guilty in court on Monday.
Wedding made his first court appearance Monday since he was arrested in Mexico last week.
United States officials said Wedding 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 any information leading to his arrest.
According to ABC News, Wedding, who competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics, moved close to 60 tons of cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Canada, and Southern California. Wedding is believed to have worked with the Sinaloa Cartel, which is one of Mexico’s most powerful drug rings.
FBI Director Kash Patel was there for Wedding’s arrest and described the snowboarder as a modern-day Pablo Escobar.
“Just to tell you how bad of a guy Ryan Wedding is, he went from an Olympic snowboarder to the largest narco-trafficker in modern times,” Patel said Friday. “He’s a modern-day El Chapo. He is a modern-day Pablo Escobar, and he thought he could evade justice.”
Per ABC, Mexican authorities said Wedding turned himself in at the United States Embassy in Mexico City last week, something Wedding’s defense attorney, Anthony Colombo, denies.
“He was arrested,” Colombo said. “He did not surrender.”
The defense attorney added that Wedding was in good spirits, but did say that this has been an overwhelming experience for his client.
Wedding was indicted in 2024 on federal charges of running a criminal enterprise, murder, conspiring to distribute cocaine, and other crimes. United States authorities claim in court papers that Wedding’s group obtained cocaine from Colombia and worked with Mexican cartels to move drugs by boat and plane to Mexico and then into the United States using semi trucks. The group would store cocaine in Southern California before sending it to Canada and other locations in the United States, per the indictment obtained by ABC.
Wedding is also accused of directing the killings of two members of a Canadian family in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment in 2023 and for ordering a killing over a drug debt in 2024. The news outlet reported Wedding was indicted on new charges of orchestrating the killing of a witness in Colombia to help him avoid extradition back to the United States.
In Canada, Wedding faces separate drug charges dating back to 2015.
Wedding is scheduled to be back in federal court February 11 with a trial set for March 24.
Wedding competed for Canada in the men’s parallel giant slalom at the Olympics in 2002. He finished 24th.
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