Former Canadian Olympic Snowboarder Ryan Wedding Pleads Not Guilty To Drug Trafficking Charges

Former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding pleaded not guilty to multiple drug-related charges after turning himself in to U.S. authorities in Mexico after spending more than 10 years in hiding.

Since November, the U.S. Treasury Department had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to his arrest, and Wedding was also on the FBI's most-wanted list.

U.S. prosecutors accuse Wedding of leading a transnational drug trafficking network with operations spanning South America, Mexico, Canada and the United States.

Wedding is also accused of orchestrating the murder and attempted murder of government witnesses, including one who was shot and killed at a restaurant before he could testify against him.

As reported by NBC News, Wedding appeared in a Southern California federal courtroom on Jan. 26, where he faces 17 charges, including conspiracy to export cocaine, operating a continuing criminal enterprise, murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise, drug crimes and retaliation against a witness, victim or informant by completed murder.

According to an indictment unsealed in 2025, Wedding's criminal organization partnered with Colombian paramilitary groups and drug cartels to source cocaine directly from Colombia. Prosecutors say the network used boats and planes to transport hundreds of kilograms to Mexico before smuggling the drugs across the U.S. southern border. He has also been identified of working with the Sinaloa Cartel.

Court records say Wedding is accused of moving at least 60 tons of cocaine from Colombia to the United States and Canada.

As noted by NBC News, Wedding's top lieutenant, Andrew Clark, was also arrested and charged last year with helping run the organization and with ordering the murders and attempted murders of at least five people.

Despite Wedding is now in custody after more than 10 years on the run, officials are yet to agree on how exactly he was captured. Although Mexican media reported that Wedding surrendered to authorities, Canadian outlet CBC News reported that Wedding's attorney, Anthony Colombo, disputed that account and said his client had been arrested.

"Any spin that the government of Mexico is putting on this, that he surrendered, is inaccurate," Colombo said.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reiterated claims that Wedding turned himself in and cited an image as evidence.

The image was posted to an Instagram account that allegedly belonged to Wedding's "representative," although CBC News later determined the image had been generated using artificial intelligence.

Speaking to reporters in Mexico City while showing the image, Sheinbaum quoted the Instagram post and said the fugitive gave himself up "on his own two feet." The president has sought to downplay suggestions that U.S. authorities were operating on Mexican soil.

Mexico's security minister, Omar García Harfuch, and Attorney General Ernestina Godoy have also said Wedding surrendered to U.S. authorities.

CBC News said it contacted Sheinbaum's office, as well as the offices of Harfuch and Godoy, seeking a response to Colombo's statement, but received no immediate reply.

Wedding is scheduled to return to court on Feb. 11 for a status hearing, where the parties will discuss whether the trial date, set for March 24, is realistic or needs to be pushed back. In the meantime, Wedding remains in custody in California.