Ryan Wedding is escorted by FBI agents as he arrives handcuffed at Ontario International Airport, in California on Friday, in this screengrab taken from a video.FBI/Reuters
Ryan Wedding, an alleged drug trafficker and former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who was among the FBI’s most wanted fugitives, pleaded not guilty to charges of murder conspiracy and drug trafficking Monday.
Shackled, handcuffed and wearing khaki prison garb, Mr. Wedding was arraigned in a courtroom in Santa Ana, Calif.
He smiled as he entered court and appeared at ease while answering basic case questions before U.S. Magistrate Judge John D. Early.
Criminal defence lawyer Anthony Colombo is representing Mr. Wedding.
Asked on the courthouse steps how he responded to allegations that his client participated in a conspiracy to murder, Mr. Colombo replied, “You heard him plead ‘not guilty,’ right? That’s how I’d respond.”
Inside Ryan Wedding’s alleged rise through the narcotrafficking world
The question of exactly how Mr. Wedding came to be in U.S. custody remains unclear. Mr. Colombo also disputed reports that Mr. Wedding had voluntarily surrendered.
“He was apprehended,” the lawyer said, describing statements by Mexican authorities about a Canadian having turned themselves in at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City as “spin.”
“If there’s anybody in a position to know how his arrest and apprehension went down, it’s his counsel,” Mr. Colombo said.
He referenced the U.S.’s recent capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
“We’re in a bold new era with regard to international relations,” he said, pointing out that no extradition hearing had been held prior to removing Mr. Wedding from Mexico.
Defence attorney Anthony Colombo speaks to the media outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Building on Monday in Santa Ana, Calif.Mario Tama/Getty Images
Earlier Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reiterated that Mr. Wedding surrendered at the American embassy last Thursday on his own volition. Ms. Sheinbaum told reporters at the National Palace that Mr. Wedding must have done so because “he considered it better to surrender than to continue being hunted.”
She also stated that her government did not participate in any joint operation with the United States in any operation to capture Mr. Wedding.
Mexico’s Attorney-General Ernestina Godoy Ramos also released a statement Monday saying Mr. Wedding gave himself up after “intense pressure” from her government.
At the Santa Ana court, prosecutors moved a motion asking for Mr. Wedding’s detention on grounds that he’s a flight risk and presents a potential risk to the public.
Mr. Colombo agreed to the detention without prejudice for the time being, saying that he and his client had not had enough time to prepare arguments in favour of Mr. Wedding being granted bail.
He described his client as being in “good spirits,” and said that he was not worried about Mr. Wedding’s safety in jail.
“This has been a whirlwind for Mr. Wedding,” Mr. Colombo said, adding that he only met his client in person when he arrived in the U.S.
Mr. Colombo has previously represented Mexican drug kingpin and co-founder of the Tijuana Cartel Benjamin Arellano Felix, and Rubén Oseguera González, better known as El Menchito, leader of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, who was convicted in 2024 of international drug trafficking and firearms offences.
A courtroom sketch shows Mr. Wedding attending a hearing in U.S. federal court Monday in Santa Ana.Mona Edwards/Reuters
This is not the first time Mr. Wedding has been in custody.
Brett Kalina is a retired U.S. FBI Special Agent who arrested Mr. Wedding for cocaine offences leading to the Canadian’s 2009 drug-trafficking conviction – a rare instance of him ever getting caught. He got the equivalent of a four-year sentence and was jailed.
In an interview, Mr. Kalina said he remains stunned at Mr. Wedding’s alleged post-prison ascent in the violent underworld of Mexico’s cartels.
“When you’re an outsider, it’s not an easy thing, it’s dangerous – and one slip and you’re gone,” Mr. Kalina said. “You have to be an asset all the time.”
And now, Mr. Kalina said he is equally stunned at the rapidity with which that uncatchable aura dissipated.
At the end of the day, a Canadian who allegedly plotted multiple murders against his fellow Canadians is off the streets, Mr. Kalina said.
Swift transfer of Ryan Wedding from Mexico to U.S. raises questions
Prior to his arrest, Mr. Wedding was believed to be hiding out in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel. He faces multiple murder conspiracy charges in the U.S. in connection to the killings of people in Canada and elsewhere.
One of those killings was an alleged botched contract hit in November, 2023, that took the lives of Jagtar Singh, 57, and his wife, Harbhajan Kaur Sidhu, 55, in Caledon, Ont., in what U.S. authorities say was a case of mistaken identity.
Mr. Wedding was charged in 2024 with running a drug ring that used semi-trucks to move cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Southern California and Canada.
In November, U.S. Attorney-General Pam Bondi announced that Mr. Wedding had also been indicted on charges of orchestrating the killing of a witness in Colombia to help him avoid extradition to the U.S.
Mr. Wedding’s previous conviction in the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute cocaine resulted in him being sentenced to prison in 2010, federal records show. He was deported to Canada in 2011.
He also faces separate drug trafficking charges in Canada that date back to 2015, according to the RCMP.
The circumstances of Mr. Wedding’s arrest and the swiftness of his transport from Mexico to the U.S. are raising concerns about the handover, which appears to have sidestepped the norms that have typically dictated such cross-border operations.
With files from Jill Mahoney, Adrian Morrow, Colin Freeze, Mike Hager and The Associated Press