A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder pleaded not guilty on Monday 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 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 Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list last March, the AP reports, when authorities offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
Wedding arrived in court Monday wearing a tan jail jumpsuit with his ankles chained. When asked by US Magistrate John D. Early if he read the indictments filed against him, Wedding answered, "I've read them both, yes." The judge ordered him held in custody, saying he could not immediately find conditions that would ensure public safety or Wedding's appearance in court. He said he could consider bond if Wedding seeks it later. When speaking to reporters Monday outside the federal court in Santa Ana, south of Los Angeles, Wedding's defense attorney Anthony Colombo disputed that his client had turned himself in in Mexico and said he was living in Mexico, not hiding out there.
"He was arrested," Colombo said after the brief hearing. "He did not surrender." Authorities say that Wedding moved as much as 60 tons of cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Canada, and Southern California and that they 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.
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