Accused drug kingpin Ryan Wedding arrested

Ryan Wedding, accused of orchestrating murders while running a transnational drug trafficking enterprise, has been arrested in Mexico City, according to a joint announcement from multiple law enforcement agencies on Friday.

Calling the Olympic snowboarder from Coquitlam “the largest narco-trafficker in modern times,” FBI director Kash Patel referred to Wedding as a: “modern day El Chapo.”

“Investigators worked tirelessly for well over a year to find Mr. Wedding,” said the FBI’s assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office Akil Davis.

Wedding was responsible for shipping approximately 60 metric tonnes of cocaine through southern California to Canada, Davis said during a press conference at Ontario International Airport.

Speaking to CBC, security analyst David Saucedo said Wedding’s surrender was preceded by when a faction of the Sinaloa cartel opted to withdraw their backing of the former snowboarder, leaving Wedding vulnerable to assassination.

Law enforcement officials declined to offer details about Wedding’s arrest.

However, one law professor suggested Wedding’s quick exit from Mexico may suggest a failure to value extradition treaties.

“There is a due process problem when we sacrifice extradition just because the alleged offender is supposed to be very dangerous,” Dalhousie University law professor Robert Currie told the Glove and Mail.

Wedding’s organization committed “greed-driven crimes” from Colombia to Canada, stated Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in charge Matthew Allen in a previous release.

After shipping cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles, Wedding’s network allegedly stored the narcotics in stash houses before packing it into long-haul semi-trucks and ferrying it over the border into Canada, according to an indictment from the United States Department of Justice.

Wedding is linked to several murders including the November 2023 killing of Jagtar Sidhu and his wife, Harbhajan Sidhu. Police called the crime a case of mistaken identity, according to reporting by The Province.

Wedding and an associate are also accused of ordering a murder over a drug debt in May 2024.