Fugitive ex-Olympian Ryan Wedding was found — but not arrested — this year, docs show

After Ryan Wedding evaded the RCMP for nearly a decade, U.S. authorities briefly learned of the alleged drug lord's precise location earlier this year, as they kept building a case against the former Olympic snowboarder.

This revelation is contained in newly unsealed Ontario court records obtained by CBC News. The documents lay out some of the steps taken by U.S. authorities to covertly gather evidence on Wedding's alleged transnational criminal enterprise.

A California grand jury indictment made public last week names Wedding, 43, as the leader of a $1-billion US drug trafficking network linked to violent killings in Ontario. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Wedding, a member of Team Canada at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In January, U.S. authorities knew exactly where he was, according to a statement of facts recently filed in Ontario Superior Court as Toronto police sought to arrest four of Wedding's alleged accomplices.

Sometime last year, an unnamed witness who U.S. authorities said "had trafficked drugs with Wedding for more than a decade" agreed to co-operate with investigators.

In January, the witness met face-to-face with Wedding and his "second in command," Andrew Clark, in Mexico City. The precise location of the encounter — which was directed by U.S. law enforcement — is not disclosed in the documents.

For the witness, the meeting carried risks. A conversation with Clark — also Canadian, and nicknamed "The Dictator" — was even recorded. 

U.S. authorities say both Wedding and Clark have been living in Mexico, under the protection of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel. Clark was reportedly arrested earlier this month at a restaurant in the Guadalajara area in a dramatic daytime operation involving the Mexican Navy.

Wedding, who goes by aliases such as "Boss" and "Public Enemy," has been notoriously harder to apprehend.

The former athlete was sentenced to a U.S. prison term in 2010 after he was convicted in California on a charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

But "upon his release," U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said last week, Wedding "went back to drug trafficking and, in fact, built this prolific and ruthless organization."

The RCMP confirmed to CBC that they've been hunting Wedding since "approximately" 2015. That year, media reports said Wedding was among 15 people charged in the RCMP's Operation Harrington, which sought to crack down on cocaine imports into Canada.

"I certainly hope that Mr. Wedding's world is a little smaller now," said Liam Price, the RCMP's director general of international special services, said in an interview.

Although he said the Mounties and their partners will be "making every effort to track him down as soon as possible," Price added that "I wouldn't want to put a date on it."