Olympian turned drug kingpin Ryan Wedding pleads not guilty to two indictments in first court appearance in California

Former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, who is on the run from the FBI, pleaded not guilty to two charges while appearing in federal court Monday.

Wedding, 44, was arrested in Mexico City last week and flown to Southern California after a yearlong effort by authorities in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Colombia and the Dominican Republic to detain him.

He faces multiple drug conspiracy charges and four murder and attempted murder charges in connection with a multibillion-dollar multinational drug trafficking ring that authorities allege he ran.

The alleged drug lord made his first appearance in federal court in Santa Ana, California, wearing a prison jumpsuit and shackled at the ankles.

He smiled briefly, then clasped his hands and leaned back in his chair before reviewing the paperwork with his lawyer. When asked by U.S. Magistrate Judge John D. Early if he had read the indictments against him, Wedding responded, ‘I’ve read them both, yes.’

The judge ordered him kept in custody, saying he could not immediately find conditions that would ensure public safety or for Wedding to appear in court. He said he might consider bail if Wedding wanted it later.

The Canadian is seen on the left side of the courtroom during his first court appearance

The 44-year-old former snowboarder was photographed being handcuffed off a plane in California

The trial against the former Olympian is set to begin March 24 in downtown Los Angeles. A status conference on the case is scheduled for Feb. 11.

Wedding was wanted by the FBI for an alleged international drug ring that Attorney General Pam Bondi alleges was responsible for bringing nearly 60 metric tons of cocaine into Southern California annually.

Wedding was allegedly under the protection of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel for much of the last decade, and FBI director Kash Patel compared him to that group’s jailed former leader, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán.

Speaking to reporters outside federal court in Santa Ana, south of Los Angeles, on Monday, Wedding’s defense attorney, Anthony Colombo, disputed that his client surrendered in Mexico and said he was living in Mexico and not hiding there.

“He was arrested,” Colombo said after the brief hearing, without providing further details. ‘He did not surrender.’

Colombo said his client was in ‘good spirits’ but added ‘this has been a whirlwind for Mr Wedding’.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment after the hearing.

Wedding was previously convicted of cocaine distribution in the United States and later served 3 1/2 years of a four-year prison sentence. In 2024, he was charged with eight felonies, including three murders, and last November, a grand jury indictment was unsealed against Wedding, charging him with the death of a federal witness who was supposed to testify against the former snowboarder.

Wedding pleaded not guilty to two charges before a federal judge in California.

Wedding’s attorney, Anthony Colombo, speaks outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse

Wedding represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics but did not win a medal.

After the snowboarder spent nearly a decade on the run, the FBI recently increased the reward for information about Wedding to $15 million. It’s unclear whether this money will be given to anyone, as Wedding has reportedly surrendered.

Patel refused to provide further details about the government’s pursuit of Wedding on Friday, saying he wanted to ‘secure’ the investigation.

‘Going to Mexico to find a man who has been on the run for years for some of the most horrific crimes on planet Earth requires an interagency effort led by the President. [Donald] Trump, our Department of Justice and our partners in Mexico and [we are] I’m so grateful for this partnership,” Patel told reporters after Wedding’s arrest in California on Friday.

The FBI Director also thanked Mexico for its cooperation in bringing down Wedding and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

He thanked US Ambassador to Mexico Ronald D. Johnson for being the ‘quarterback’ in this case last year.

A native of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Wedding became a competitive snowboarder as a youth in British Columbia before qualifying for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, where he finished 24th in the men’s parallel giant slalom.

The search for a wedding has been gaining momentum for some time.

A month ago, the FBI released never-before-seen photos of the seizure of a $40 million vehicle believed to belong to Wedding. Among the seized items were 62 motorcycles as well as a rare 2002 Mercedes CLK-GTR Roadster worth $13 million.

FBI’s Kash Patel announced the arrest of Ryan Wedding, who will appear in court on Monday

Last month, federal authorities released a photo of a shirtless Wedding lying on his bed.

Although unconfirmed, speculation on social media has claimed that some of the bikes have a famous history, potentially even being ridden by Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez in MotoGP.

Additionally, during the latest operation, FBI agents found two more vehicles, two Olympic medals, methamphetamine, marijuana, artwork and ammunition. It is unclear who the medals belong to, as Wedding placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom at her only Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

The US Treasury Department alleged Wedding created a ‘complex web of assets’ using luxury cars, motorcycles, property, cryptocurrency and front businesses to hide his wealth.’

Authorities also said there was “some evidence” that Wedding had undergone plastic surgery to change her appearance and avoid detection.

In November, Patel said Wedding was responsible for ‘engineering a program of drug trafficking and narco terrorism that we have not seen in a long time’. According to authorities, he and his accomplices used their California stash house and semi-trucks to transport tons of cocaine and fentanyl to North America.

The network was previously described by Bondi as ‘one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in the world’.

Earlier this month the FBI added alleged Wedding accomplice Bianca Canastillo-Madrid to its ‘Wanted’ list. He was subject to a federal arrest warrant after being charged with distribution and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to export cocaine, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.

He was also accused of partnering with Iranian and Russian cocaine traffickers and was convicted in 2010 of trying to buy the drug from an undercover US government agent. He was sentenced to four years in prison, but was released in late 2011, taking into account time served.

The wedding was wanted by the FBI and the organization was offering $15 million for information.

In 2024, Wedding was charged with murder and leading a cocaine trafficking cartel as part of the U.S. government’s Operation Giant Slalom.

Wedding, along with alleged accomplice Andrew Clark, allegedly ordered the killings of married couple Jagtar Sidhu, 57, and Harbhajan Sidhu, 55, in November 2023, Mohammed Zafar, 39, in May 2024, and a federal witness in Colombia in January 2025.

The Sidhus were believed to have been killed over a stolen drug shipment, although Ontario Provincial Police Detective-Inspector Brian McDermott said in 2024 that the assassins ‘shot the wrong people’.

Their daughter, Jaspreet Kaur Sidhu, 28, was also shot 13 times in the attack but survived.

‘My father was shot in front of me,’ he told CBS News in 2024. ‘I heard my mother’s last screams. There was complete silence after that. Just gunshots.’

Clark was previously arrested in Mexico in 2024 and extradited to the United States. He has pleaded not guilty to four murders in Ontario, Canada.