MOST WANTED: Kash Patel announces arrest of former Olympian cocaine kingpin

All right. Good morning, everybody. I think it's still morning, right? My name is Kash Patel. I'm the director of the FBI. Today, we are here because of President Trump's incredible leadership and commitment to supporting law enforcement across the country and around the world. We are here today to announce another record historic achievement because of law enforcement partnerships across America and across the globe come together to fight crime in all corners of the earth. Today, we are announcing a capture of another FBI's most wanted top 10 fugitive, Ryan Wedding. That makes six top 10 FBI captures in one year alone. To put that in perspective, that's two more than the entirety of the prior administration. And none of this would be possible without the tremendous leadership of Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice and our partners and prosecutors at the United States Attorney's Office here in LA and our Los Angeles field office. Here, you'll see many of our brave partners, including the commissioner of the RCMP, the chief of police of the LAPD, our LA field office, ADEC, along with our partners from DEA and CBP and more. This is what a united front looks like. And just to tell you how bad of a guy Ryan Wedding is, he went from an Olympic snowboarder to the largest narco trafficker in modern times. He is a modern day El Chapo. He is a modern day Pablo Escobar. And he thought he could evade justice. But these brave men and women put together a prosecution package, put together investigative package, put together an operations strategy. And here we are today bringing him to justice for trafficking hundreds of kilos of cocaine and also for the murder of innocent civilians. This individual and his organization in the Sinaloa cartel poured narcotics into the streets of North America and killed too many of our youth and corrupted too many of our citizens. And that ends today. I also want to have a tremendous shout out to the government of Mexico. President Scheinbaum, Secretary Harfouche, and the military and law enforcement officers of Mexico worked hand in glove with our teams on the ground there to apprehend last night in Mexico City, Ryan Wedding. I was privileged to be there on a previously planned trip. And this was a great operation that came together through interagency success, because no one behind me and to the side of me cares about credit. They care about putting away the bad guys and safeguarding our communities. That is the leadership that President Trump has brought to the presidency. That is the support that he has brought to law enforcement from coast to coast. And I just can't say how thankful I am to be a small part of this and lead the FBI. These men and women do the hard work. But when you go after a guy like Ryan Wedding, it takes a united front. And that's what you're seeing here. You're seeing global partnerships from coast to coast. I want to give a special shout out to our ambassador in Mexico. Ambassador Ron Johnson quarterbacked this effort for us from Mexico for a year plus. As soon as he got to post at our new embassy compound there, he made this a priority and he came through. This is what leadership looks like. And this is a historic 2025 year the FBI is having. To put it in perspective, the FBI has had 67,000 arrests this year alone. That is a 200% increase. The FBI has captured six of the top 10 most fugitives on our board. The FBI has also seized enough fentanyl to kill 150 million Americans, a 31% increase. The FBI has arrested 35% more espionage corrupt actors from China, Russia, the DPRK, and Iran. The FBI has found and identified 6,000 children that were missing. That is up 22%. All of these historic, record-breaking numbers lead to another historic, record-breaking number brought to you by President Trump's leadership. That is a 20% decline in the murder rate in the United States of America. That is an all-time record for the modern era. Our communities are safeguarded by these men and women. We are thankful to be partnered with the Department of Justice and the relentless efforts to safeguard our communities by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. But we're not done today. We're going to get back on the plane. We've captured and apprehended another top 10 fugitive while we were in Mexico. We're going to head east and hand him over to local law enforcement authorities. I also want to give a huge shout out to state and local law enforcement. This work is not possible at all without them on the front lines every single day. They are the greatest partners we could ever have. Thank God we have a president who backs the blue. That is what results look like. Personally, for me at the FBI, I want to thank our hostage rescue team. I want to thank our special flight operations unit. I want to thank our headquarters component, our L.A. field office. This was an enterprise-wide success. The moving pieces to pull this off and apprehend one of the world's most wanted criminals and bring him to justice in the United States of America can only be done when you have leadership from the top with President Trump, the Attorney General, and all these great leaders here. I'm going to turn it over to the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the Los Angeles Field Office, Akeel Davis, for some more comments on the case itself and the investigation. Good morning. My name is Akeel Davis. I'm the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office. We told you in November we would find Mr. Wedding, and today that day has arrived. The long arm of the law extends beyond our borders. This marks the 500th capture of an FBI top 10 fugitive since its inception 75 years ago. I want to congratulate the devoted team effort that led to this capture. Today is a great day for the FBI and for our partners here today, specifically our partners at the RCMP, the LAPD, and the DEA, and so many other agencies at every level. But it's also a good day for the victims of this case. Ryan Wedding tormented several people and several families that will never be the same, but today they get the justice that they sought. Investigators worked tirelessly for well over a year to find Mr. Wedding, where he will face federal prosecution. As you know, Mr. Wedding and others are charged for their roles in a transnational organized crime network, shipping massive amounts of cocaine, approximately 60 metric tons, through Southern California on its way to Canada. Mr. Wedding is also wanted for orchestrating multiple murders of victims and government witnesses. In addition to the massive manhunt that went into apprehending Mr. Wedding, we worked with State Department to offer rewards and the office, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control, which imposed crushing sanctions in this case. This case is also being worked under the auspices of the Homeland Security Task Force here in Los Angeles. I'd like to provide a few details to illustrate the sheer work that has gone into this case. We've arrested 36 people for their role in this organization. Again, we've worked with our Canadian partners, our Mexican partners, our partners in Colombia and the Dominican Republic. The Treasury Department has sanctioned 19 people, including Ryan Wedding himself. We've seen a mountain of drugs, cash, weapons. We seized the Mercedes Benz, estimated over $15 million. We seized dozens of motorcycles worth approximately $40 million and other valuable artwork and jewelry. Ryan Wedding will be held in custody over the weekend and is anticipated to have his initial appearance on Monday morning. While we're happy about this victory, we have a lot of work ahead of us to prosecute this case and continue our investigation. I want to emphasize we are still seeking multiple individuals wanted for their roles in this organization. The State Department is still offering a $2 million reward for information leading to additional arrests. I ask anyone with information to contact us at 424-494-0614. The number can be called internationally, domestically via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram. I also would like to thank lastly the Ontario International Airport for making this possible, securing the security of the scene and allowing us to plan this in such a way. Thank you and I'd now like to turn it over to Chief McDonald of the Los Angeles Police Department. Thank you Akil and thank you all for being here today. The Los Angeles Police Department is proud to stand with our federal, international and local partners as we announce the arrest of Ryan James Wedding. This has been a coordinated, intelligence-driven investigation into Wedding's global drug trafficking organization which used Los Angeles as its primary point of distribution. Our collective efforts led to the seizure of more than 2,300 kilograms of cocaine, 44 kilograms of methamphetamine, 44 kilograms of fentanyl, eight firearms and over 55 million dollars in illicit assets. This outcome reflects the tireless and seamless collaboration of the FBI, the LAPD, the DEA and we're joined by Brian Clark here, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Together we have disrupted a major narcotics pipeline impacting Los Angeles, the United States and Canada. This is a significant blow to a criminal network that has endangered communities across borders. I want to personally thank the dedicated men and women from every agency represented here, from my own agency, the work of gang and narcotics division particularly. Their relentless commitment over the past two years has made this operation possible. Because of their work, Los Angeles is safer and those responsible are being held accountable. We appreciate our media partners for showing up today on such short notice. Thank you for that. It's now my pleasure to be able to introduce to you the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Mike Duhem. Thank you. Thanks Mike. Good morning everyone. I would like to start off by thanking Director Patel for inviting me here on this special occasion. It goes without saying that no single agency or nation can combat transnational organized crime alone. The arrest of Ryan Wedding is the result of a strong trusted partnership. I want to thank the men and women from the FBI, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the U.S. Department of Justice, Los Angeles Police Force and all the U.S. and Canadian law enforcement that took part in this. They spent countless of hours and many sacrifices to lead us to where we're at here today and without the results we can probably say that our communities, our countries are much safer with the arrest of Ryan Wedding. Thank you very much. Thanks guys. Thanks. We'll take a few questions. Without getting into operational sensitivities, Ryan Wedding was apprehended last night in Mexico City and to safeguard the integrity of the ongoing investigation, we will not go into that. But I think it goes without saying to go down to Mexico to find a guy who's been on the lam for multiple years for some of the most egregious crimes on planet Earth, takes an interagency wide effort, led out by President Trump, our DOJ, and our partners in Mexico. I'm very grateful for that partnership. Unrelated to Mr. Wedding's apprehension, an individual by the name of Mr. Castillo, another top 10 fugitive on the FBI's Most Wanted list, was apprehended also in Mexico last week. We are going to be transporting him east right after we depart here today. As the gentleman stated, Mr. Wedding is in custody already. He was transported off the plane. The indictment stems from the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney's Office, so the investigators, the police, will handle that appropriately in that jurisdiction. This arrest was a success of interagency law enforcement putting itself to the max every single day relentlessly. We will not comment on anyone regarding the rewards. We'll take one more question. Sorry, I can't hear you. Well, we came to Ontario because the weather's pretty nice here, but we also have to maximize operational security. We make these decisions jointly with our partners who run these airports. We make these decisions jointly with the local police force and our interagency officers. There are trigger points and earmarks that we have to meet to safely transport an individual of the level and caliber of Ryan Wedding, and so that collective decision was made to ensure the security of both the transportation and the federal transfer of custody that the FBI executed, and also to ensure the safety of his confinement and ultimate prosecution. Thank you, everybody. Have a great day.