After more than a decade on the lam, Ryan Wedding is finally in police custody.
What happened: The former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin was arrested by Mexican authorities on Thursday night. Wedding, who was one of the FBI’s 10 most-wanted fugitives, faces a litany of charges in the U.S. related to drug trafficking and murder — including allegedly ordering the killing of a federal witness who had turned on him.
After long avoiding capture, the walls started closing in on Wedding at the end of last year when several of his associates were arrested and some of his assets seized.
Catch-up: Wedding’s story is ready-made for a future Netflix miniseries. Born into a family of elite skiers, he was a snowboarding prodigy and represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics. But after placing a lacklustre 24th in his event, he left it behind for a life of crime.
He started out by running a pot grow-op before graduating to cocaine. He was nailed as part of an attempted drug deal in California in 2008, receiving a lenient sentence.
Upon returning to Canada in 2011, he had levelled up thanks to connections made while in prison. In 2015, he fled the country after another deal was busted.
Since then, he has grown in stature as a drug lord, supposedly working with the notorious Sinaloa Cartel, and earned a reputation for being particularly ruthless.