VIDEO: FBI captures dramatic return of Ryan Wedding to US after arrest
Newly released footage depicts the infamous figure Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder turned crime lord, arriving in the United States on Friday under the custody of law enforcement officers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that Wedding, a significant figure on the bureau’s most-wanted list, was apprehended in Mexico and extradited to California. The charges against Wedding are serious, accusing him of leading a transnational drug trafficking ring responsible for transporting around 60 tons of cocaine from Latin America into the United States each year, alongside orchestrating numerous violent acts to further his criminal enterprises.
The FBI detailed the scope of Wedding’s alleged criminal activities, emphasizing the routine smuggling of large quantities of cocaine from Colombia, passing through Mexico and Southern California, with destinations including Canada and various locations across the United States. The agency also points out that Wedding is suspected of commissioning multiple murders in connection with his illicit drug operations, underscoring the grave nature of his criminal empire. Notably, Wedding’s criminal notoriety had propelled him to the status of one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted fugitives, a position he held since March 2025, until his recent apprehension in Mexico and subsequent surrender at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City.
In the aftermath of Wedding’s capture, FBI Director Kash Patel held a press conference in California, drawing a striking parallel between Wedding and the infamous drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, citing Wedding as a modern-day equivalent. Patel further elaborated that Wedding had been evading justice in Mexico for over a decade, marked as a key figure in the Sinaloa Cartel and wanted on charges of cocaine trafficking and murder since 2024. The arrest of Wedding was heralded by Attorney General Pam Bondi as a direct outcome of President Trump’s robust law enforcement policies, attributing the success to the unwavering efforts of FBI Director Patel and praising the collaborative efforts of U.S. Ambassador Ron Johnson and Mexican authorities in facilitating Wedding’s capture.
Records indicate that Wedding had a prior criminal conviction for conspiracy to distribute cocaine in the United States, resulting in a prison sentence in 2010. Nevertheless, the current charges against him paint a graver picture of his involvement in the coordination of an expansive drug trafficking network spanning multiple countries, as well as his suspected role in various violent crimes, including the killings of a federal witness and three others. Despite his origins in Canada, where he had notably represented his country in the 2002 Winter Olympics, Wedding’s descent into criminal activities and subsequent capture stand as a stark reminder of the complexity and reach of global organized crime networks.