$40m worth of motorcycles seized in hunt for ex-Olympic snowboarder turned 'drug kingpin'

Mexican officials have seized dozens of motorcycles worth around $40m in the hunt for a former Olympic snowboarder who is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.

Canadian Ryan Wedding, 44, has been accused of running a multi-national drug trafficking network and is additionally facing charges in connection with the killing of a federal witness. US authorities believe he is living in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel, with up to $15m (£11m) being offered for information leading to his arrest.

This month, Mexican authorities executed multiple search warrants and seized a large number of motorcycles believed to be owned by Wedding. In a statement this week, the FBI said the bikes had an estimated value of approximately $40m (£30m).

Other items confiscated included artworks and medals. The FBI said the seizures came with assistance from Mexican authorities, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Los Angeles Police Department.

Wedding competed for Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where he finished 24th in the men's parallel giant slalom event. Officials in the US and Canada have compared the former sportsman to other famous drug kingpins, including Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Pablo Escobar.

Last month, Wedding was accused of orchestrating the killing of a witness in Colombia to help him avoid extradition to the US in January. Ten other defendants were arrested on the charges in the federal indictment, which was unsealed in California.

Read more from Sky News:Four killed in US strike on alleged drug boatA decade of county lines leaves its scars on children Authorities have accused Wedding of working closely with the Sinaloa Cartel to funnel massive quantities of drugs into the US and Canada. Wedding, whose aliases include El Jefe, Public Enemy and James Conrad King, was charged in 2024 with running a drug ring that moves some 60 tons of cocaine a year using long-haul lorries to bring the drugs between Colombia, Mexico, Southern California and Canada.

Authorities say he and his co-conspirators used a Canadian website called The Dirty News to post a photograph of the witness so he could be identified and killed. The witness was then followed to a restaurant in Medellin and shot in the head in January.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said last month: "Whether you are a street-level drug dealer ... or an international drug kingpin, we are coming for you.".