Ex-Olympian pleads not guilty to running billion-dollar drug empire
Lawyer for FBI ‘most wanted’ fugitive denies alleged kingpin turned himself in at the US embassy in Mexico
A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder pleaded not guilty to running a billion-dollar drug trafficking ring and orchestrating multiple killings, as one of the FBI’s top fugitives made his first US court appearance on Monday since he was arrested in Mexico last week and flown to California.
US authorities say Ryan Wedding, who competed in a single event for his home country in 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 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list last March when authorities offered a US$15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
Authorities say Wedding moved as much as 60 tonnes 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 rings.
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.
When speaking to reporters on Monday outside the federal court in Santa Ana, south of Los Angeles, Wedding’s defence lawyer Anthony Colombo disputed that his client had turned himself in in Mexico and said he was living in Mexico, not hiding out there.