Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder and alleged drug kingpin Ryan Wedding has been arrested in Mexico and will be extradited to the US after years on the run, FBI Director Kash Patel has said.
Wedding, who had been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, is accused of running a transnational drug trafficking operation that moved tonnes of cocaine across international borders.
Wedding, 44, was also wanted on murder charges. US officials had said they believed Wedding was living in Mexico under the Sinaloa drug cartel's protection.
The head of Canada's federal police force, which assisted in the investigation, spoke alongside Patel on Friday to praise the law enforcement operation.
No single agency or nation can combat transnational organised crime alone, said Mike Duheme, Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
We can finally say that our communities, our countries, are much safer with the arrest of Ryan Wedding, he added.
Wedding is expected to make his first court appearance on Monday.
Officials say he had been living in luxury in Mexico. In December, Mexican authorities announced that they had seized $40m in racing motorcycles owned by Wedding. They also seized other valuable items, including luxury paintings, artworks, drugs and two Olympic gold medals.
It is unclear to whom the medals belong. Wedding competed for Canada in the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, but did not win any medals. He came in 24th place in the men's giant parallel slalom ski event.
Before he was arrested, Wedding was accused of killing a federal witness in a case against him. Officials say he has also ordered the murders of several others.
Wedding is now facing a slew of felony charges, including witness tampering and intimidation, murder, money laundering and drug trafficking.
Patel has described Wedding as a modern-day Pablo Escobar, indicating the scale and severity of his alleged crimes. US officials have also compared him to Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán in Mexico.
