By Euronews
Published on
•Updated
A Canadian former Olympic snowboarder has pleaded not guilty to running an international drug trafficking ring and orchestrating multiple murders.
Ryan Wedding made his first US court appearance on Monday after he was arrested in Mexico last week and flown to California.
The 44-year-old — also known as “El Jefe”, “Giant” and “Public Enemy” — had been hiding in Mexico for more than a decade prior to his arrest, according to US authorities.
He was added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list last March when the agency offered a $15 million (€13m) reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
Wedding is accused of moving up to 60 tonnes of cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Canada and Southern California. US officials have alleged that he was working under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful drug rings.
He is also accused of directing the murder of a witness in Colombia who planned to testify against him.
Mexican officials said Wedding turned himself in at the US Embassy in Mexico City last week and was flown to Southern California after a yearlong effort by authorities in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Colombia and the Dominican Republic to arrest him.
His lawyer, Anthony Colombo, disputed that his client had turned himself in in Mexico and said he was not hiding out in the country.
“He was arrested,” Colombo told reporters on Monday outside the federal court in Santa Ana, southeast of Los Angeles. “He did not surrender.”
Wedding was scheduled to be back in court on 11 February, with a trial date set for 24 March. The judge ordered him held in custody, saying he could not immediately find conditions that would ensure public safety or guarantee Wedding’s appearance in court.
Drug and murder charges
Wedding was indicted in 2024 on federal charges of running a criminal enterprise, murder, conspiring to distribute cocaine and other crimes.
US authorities allege 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 semitrucks.
The group stored cocaine in Southern California before sending it to Canada and other US states, according to the indictment.
The murder charges accuse Wedding of directing the 2023 killings of two members of a Canadian family in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment, and for ordering a killing over a drug debt in 2024.
Last year, Wedding was indicted on new charges of orchestrating the killing of a witness in Colombia to help him avoid extradition to the United States.
Wedding was previously convicted in the United States of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and sentenced to prison in 2010, before being released the following year.
In Canada, Wedding faces separate drug charges dating back to 2015.
Wedding represented Canada in the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, where he finished 24th in the parallel giant slalom event.
Additional sources • AP