Ryan James Wedding, an alleged drug kingpin and former Canadian Olympic snowboarder, has been arrested by the FBI.
Wedding, who was a fugitive on the FBI’s 10 “Most Wanted” list, is accused of running a criminal enterprise that has smuggled six metric tons of cocaine a year into Los Angeles via semitrucks from Mexico.
“He is a modern day ‘El Chapo,’ he is the modern-day Pablo Escobar. And he thought he could evade justice,” FBI Director Kash Patel said during a Friday press conference in Southern California at Ontario International Airport, where he was taken off a plane.
Wedding was taken into custody Thursday night in Mexico, where he is believed to have been hiding for over a decade. He is expected to appear in court in downtown L.A. on Monday.
Wedding allegedly ran a transnational drug trafficking operation that “routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California to the United States and Canada — as a member of the Sinaloa Cartel,” Patel said.
“This has been a coordinated, intelligence-driven investigation into Wedding’s global drug trafficking organization which used Los Angeles as its primary point of distribution,” said LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell.
When asked why they brought Wedding to Ontario, Patel said a joint decision was made to “safely transport an individual of the level and caliber of Ryan Wedding, so that collective decision was made to ensure security of both the transportation and federal transfer of custody that the FBI executed and also to ensure safety of his confinement.”
Wedding was previously indicted in Los Angeles federal court on multiple federal charges, including running a continuing criminal enterprise, committing murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and assorted drug crimes.
Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder accused of running a drug trafficking network, is facing additional charges in connection with the killing of a federal witness.
A superseding indictment was filed in November, alleging that Wedding ordered the killing of a witness who was set to testify against him in a federal drug trafficking case, according to the Justice Department.
Wedding’s arrest comes after a monthslong search and investigation. Last month, Mexican authorities seized a large number motorcycles believed to be owned by Wedding. The motorcycles have an estimated value of approximately $40 million.
In November, the FBI seized a rare, $13 million 2002 Mercedes CLK-GTR Roadster as part of their ongoing manhunt.
The seizure of the rare 2002 Mercedes CLK-GTR Roadster is part of the ongoing manhunt for Ryan Wedding, the alleged drug kingpin and former Canadian Olympic snowboarder.
Prior to starting his alleged criminal enterprise, Wedding, whose alleged aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant” and “Public Enemy,” was a professional snowboarder and competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
ABC News contributed to this report.
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