What were the charges against Ryan Wedding? Details explored as ex-Olympic snowboarder gets arrested

Alleged drug kingpin and former Canadian Olympic snowboarder, Ryan Wedding, has been arrested by the FBI. Wedding was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, and after being on the run for years was arrested in Mexico. He is now being extradited to the US, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.

It is believed that Ryan Wedding was a member of the Sinaloa Cartel and was hiding in Mexico for more than a decade. Patel exclaimed that he is being charged with "running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation."

The director further went ahead and described him as a "modern-day Pablo Escobar" and even compared him to Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. In fact, his aliases include "El Jefe," "James Conrad King," "Giant," "Public Enemy," and "Jesse King," and he allegedly also underwent plastic surgery while being on the run.

In 2011, he was serving a sentence for cocaine distribution, and it is believed that it was after his release that he went ahead and started his enterprise. The FBI had placed a bounty of $15m on any information that could lead to his arrest. Not only that, Kash Patel also stated post-arrest that,

"When you go after a guy like Ryan Wedding, it takes a united front."

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Referring to the assistance they received from Canadian and Mexican authorities in the investigation. Ryan is now facing a myriad of felony charges, which include witness tampering and intimidation, money laundering, drug trafficking, and murder.

However, the ex-olympian is not the only recent arrest on the Federal agency's roster, as an American man named Alejandro Castillo, who was wanted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, was also arrested in Mexico and is being extradited back to North Carolina for trial after nearly 10 years.

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