Who Is Ryan Wedding? Olympic Snowboarder's Age, Net Worth, Family, Criminal Allegations and Personal Life Explained

Ryan Wedding was a snowboarder who represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics. After participating in the international sporting games, he reportedly shifted careers and became an international drug trafficker who was also involved in the murders of witnesses in his illegal activities.

Wedding has been on the police's watch list after he was tagged as the leader of a large cocaine network operating globally. He was on the FBI's Most Wanted List and was captured this week, ending the law enforcers' manhunt.

Ryan Wedding's Life as an Athlete

His full name is Ryan James Wedding and he first became known to the public when he represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, Utah. As a young athlete, he competed in the men's parallel giant slalom event and was seen as a dedicated sportsman with Olympic ambitions—a far cry from the high-profile criminal suspect he would later become.

Despite his Olympic appearance, Wedding failed to build a lasting career in snowboarding. After finishing 24th in the games, he quietly disappeared from the world of sports. How his life turned out after moving away from competitive snowboarding shocked his former fans, sports colleagues, and international authorities.

Criminal Allegations Against Wedding

Wedding's life took a dark turn when he was convicted in the United States in 2008 for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. He was jailed but released from prison in 2011 after serving time. After gaining freedom, the former Olympian allegedly started to build a criminal organisation of alarming scale.

Over the next decade, he allegedly formed partnerships with powerful Mexican cartels. Using long-haul lorries, he moved massive quantities of cocaine from Colombia via Mexico to the US and Canada. Authorities described this vast illegal drug operation as extensive and ruthlessly efficient, as he was able to traffic tens of tonnes of cocaine every year.

FBI's Most Wanted With £7.3 million ($10 Million) Bounty

The 44-year-old ex-athlete's criminal activities did not go unnoticed. In March 2025, the FBI included him on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list with an initial reward offering of £7.3 million ($10 million), which eventually increased to £11 million ($15 million) for any information that would lead to Wedding's arrest.

Law enforcement revealed that the former athlete was more than just a drug trafficker. His violent crimes also included murders, as he was accused of orchestrating the killing of a federal witness in Medellín, Colombia. Wedding also engaged in witness intimidation, violent retaliation, money laundering, and attempted murder as he carried out his drug trafficking activities.

Wedding's Arrest in Mexico

According to CBS News, he was finally arrested in Mexico on 23 January 2026 after more than a year on the run. The drug kingpin was taken to the US following successful cooperation between the FBI, Mexico's law enforcement agencies, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

'Just to tell you how bad of a guy Ryan Wedding is, he went from an Olympic snowboarder to the largest narco-trafficker in modern times,' FBI Director Kash Patel said at a news conference at Southern California's Ontario International Airport. 'He is a modern-day 'El Chapo,' he is a modern-day Pablo Escobar, and he thought he could evade justice.'

Drug Kingpin's Net Worth

For running a massive global drug trafficking network, it was believed that Ryan Wedding could have made more than £735 million ($1 billion) in illegal proceeds annually from his cocaine distribution activities.

The police once seized high-value assets suspected to be connected to Wedding, including around $40 million (£29 million) worth of motorcycles and a $13 million (£9.5 million) rare car, which shows the massive scale of his wealth. However, there is no reliable public information about Wedding's official net worth accumulated during his time as an Olympic athlete and when he started running his criminal organisation.

Who is Ryan Wedding's Wife

Ryan Wedding has a wife named Miryam Andrea Castillo Moreno who is also involved in criminal activities. In November 2025, the Hindustan Times reported that the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) revealed that Wedding's wife is being sanctioned for laundering drug proceeds on behalf of her husband. It was also said that she helped him conduct acts of violence.

For her involvement in the crimes, the US Department of the Treasury named Castillo-Moreno as a top financial enabler in Wedding's drug network. The department blocked her assets in the US for her connection with the kingpin and their organisation.