Olympic snowboarder-turned-drug trafficking suspect Ryan James Wedding appears to still have a need for speed.
Mexican authorities this month seized dozens of expensive, high-powered motorcycles — worth an estimated $40 million — that Wedding, the 44-year-old Canadian fugitive, was believed to own, the FBI's Los Angeles office reported Monday.
The FBI, which said the seizure was part of a joint operation that also involved Los Angeles police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, released photos of the seized motorcycles but did not say exactly where they were found.
Last week Mexico’s Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection revealed that in addition to the motorcycles, they seized two vehicles, artwork, two Olympic medals, drugs and other items at four locations in Mexico City.
It was not immediately clear whose medals the Mexicans found.
Wedding represented Canada in 2002 at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City but did not win any medals. He placed 24th in the men’s giant parallel slalom.
Wedding, who is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on suspicion of running an international drug ring, is believed to be hiding out in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel.
The U.S. Justice Department last month increased its reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Wedding to $15 million.
FBI Director Kash Patel has likened Wedding to notorious drug kingpins like Pablo Escobar and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Last year, Wedding was indicted in Los Angeles federal court on multiple drug-related charges. And last month, he was hit with fresh charges alleging he ordered a hit on a witness in the U.S. government’s case against him and enlisted assassins to murder rival traffickers.
Wedding's organization, Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the time, is responsible for importing about 60 metric tons of cocaine a year into Los Angeles.
“He controls one of the most prolific and violent drug-trafficking organizations in this world,” she said. “He is currently the largest distributor of cocaine in Canada.”
According to federal prosecutors, Wedding embarked on a career as a drug trafficker sometime around 2008 when he traveled to San Diego with two other men to buy cocaine.
Convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, Wedding was released from prison in December 2011 and quickly established himself as a big-time international illegal drug distributor, prosecutors said.
