By AMY TAXIN, Associated Press

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned top FBI fugitive is expected to appear in federal court Monday on charges he allegedly ran a billion-dollar multinational drug trafficking ring and orchestrating multiple killings.

Ryan Wedding, 44, turned himself in at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City last week and was flown to Southern California after a yearlong effort by authorities in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Colombia and the Dominican Republic to arrest him.

Wedding is scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court in Santa Ana, California. No attorney was listed for him on the court docket Monday morning.

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U.S. authorities believe the former Olympian, who competed in a single event for his home country in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, had been hiding in Mexico for more than a decade. He was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list last March when authorities offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

Authorities say Wedding moved as much as 60 tons of cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Canada and Southern California and believe he was working under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful drug rings.

He was indicted in 2024 on federal charges of running a criminal enterprise, murder, conspiring to distribute cocaine and other crimes.

The murder charges accuse Wedding of directing the 2023 killings of two members of a Canadian family in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment, and for ordering a killing over a drug debt in 2024. Last year, Wedding was indicted on new charges of orchestrating the killing of a witness in Colombia to help him avoid extradition to the U.S.

Wedding was previously convicted in the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and sentenced to prison in 2010. Online records show he was released from Bureau of Prisons custody in 2011.

In Canada, Wedding faces separate drug charges dating back to 2015.

The 2024 indictment says Wedding ran a billion-dollar drug trafficking group that was the largest supplier of cocaine to Canada. The group obtained cocaine from Colombia and worked with Mexican cartels to move drugs by boat and plane to Mexico and then into the U.S. using semitrucks, the indictment said. It said the group stored cocaine in Southern California before sending it to Canada and other U.S. states.

An anti-ICE protest outside a Minneapolis hotel turned violent Sunday night, with some smashing windows and throwing bottles as federal officers fought to keep them from storming inside.

Heavily armed federal agents eventually arrived at Home2Suites Hotel, which protesters targeted believing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal law enforcement officers were staying there — a tactic that’s played out at other metro-area hotels in recent weeks as part of so-called “noise demonstrations.”

The protesters descended upon the hotel at 2808 University Ave. S.E. near the University of Minnesota a day after Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, 37, in Minneapolis.

Photos and video taken by several journalists captured the chaos. Dozens of protesters kicked and banged on garbage cans that had been put in the middle of University Avenue along with a mattress and other large items that blocked traffic. Others banged on pots and pans and drums, blew whistles and honked car horns. One man shot fireworks into the air, hitting windows of the six-story hotel.

A group of protesters eventually made their way to the vestibule, where a Minneapolis police officer and other men in street clothes struggled to shut the doors. One agitator who tried to push his way inside later spat toward one of the men.

A man, center left, next to a Minneapolis police officer grabs a protester in the doorway during a noise demonstration protest in response to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Other protesters hurled snow, bottles and other items into the hotel. One man pulled a small hotel sign off the building and raised it above his head, while another banged a pot on it to make more noise.

“You’re protecting murderers,” a protester yelled.

By 10 p.m., tear gas and flash bangs had been deployed and the protesters dispersed. It was unclear Monday if any arrests were made or if federal agents had been staying at the hotel.

Footage by independent photojournalist Becca Brannon showed several suspected ICE vehicles had broken windows, while one had “F–K ICE” and “MURDER” spray-painted on it.

Just before 11 p.m., the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said in a statement on X that State Patrol deputies and Department of Natural Resources officers were called to the hotel to help Minneapolis police with “damage to hotel property.”

“While they collaboratively worked to encircle the group for arrests because the demonstration was not peaceful, federal agents arrived without communication and deployed chemical irritants, clearing the group. The State Patrol and DNR are no longer on scene,” the statement read.

On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X that “anti-ICE anarchist agitators targeted a hotel where they believed DHS law enforcement was staying. This is part of a coordinated campaign of violence against law enforcement. These violent anarchists will not deter ICE from carrying out the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport the worst of the worst.”

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“COPA is a sensible, targeted tool to support organized tenants and vetted preservation buyers to fight displacement in the buildings where New Yorkers’ safety and stability is most under threat.”

Residents and organizers at a building on West 170th Street owned by “worst landlord” Daniel Ohebshalom in 2024. Gerardo Romo/NYC Council)

Across the five boroughs, organized tenants are fighting to ensure the livability and affordability of our homes—often alongside mission-driven preservation partners. The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (Intro 902-B), or COPA, would strengthen these efforts to preserve affordable housing and fight displacement. COPA would give qualified preservation buyers committed to long-term affordability the first opportunity to purchase properties when the landlord decides to sell. 

Backed by a coalition of over 200 community-based organizations, unions, faith institutions and more, the City Council passed COPA in December with a strong majority. But on his last day in office, Eric Adams vetoed the bill. Now, New Yorkers are demanding that the City Council override the veto and enact this essential anti-speculation tool for tenants and community-based organizations to protect our neighborhoods and our homes.

The tenants of 705 and 709 West 170th St. offer a stark example of why New York City needs COPA. Not long after Daniel Ohebshalom became owner about 20 years ago, conditions began deteriorating drastically. Ohebshalom was named the worst landlord in New York City in back-to-back years by the Public Advocate’s Office. Tenants have endured entire weeks, including holidays, without heat and hot water. They’ve dealt with mold, leaking pipes, and smoke from boiler fires. They’ve lived with malfunctioning front doors that made it easy for intruders and squatters to enter. Imagine so many rats at night you’d think the ground was moving. 

During the pandemic, conditions deteriorated even further. Tenants organized in protest and management retaliated with menacing phone calls and threats of eviction, heat and hot water shut offs, and further neglect of repairs. With the help of Manhattan Legal Services, tenants brought a harassment case against Ohebshalom that has dragged on for nearly three years. The tenants continue to organize alongside Northern Manhattan CLT and Met Council on Housing, to demand collective ownership and preservation of their homes. 

Tenants know that the court system alone will never deliver the long-term security they are fighting for. Even when they win repairs, buildings can still be sold to another slumlord, and the speculation and harassment cycle starts again. Tens of thousands of New York City tenants currently suffer from this system in which predatory corporations have the upper hand and perpetuate a status quo of neglected repairs, harassment and eviction.

COPA will change that dynamic, creating transparency and a real opportunity for tenants and mission-driven community partners to step in when a building is for sale. It covers a select subset of properties with deep distress and high violation counts that signal displacement risk. Instead of backroom deals and surprise sales, COPA would require notice and a fair window for qualified nonprofit buyers—including community land trusts, and those working with vetted private partners—to make a competitive offer. Sellers retain the right to approve or reject the offer, and preservation buyers have the opportunity to match third-party private offers. 

COPA is a sensible, targeted tool to support organized tenants and vetted preservation buyers to fight displacement in the buildings where New Yorkers’ safety and stability is most under threat. 

Nine years ago, residents of Washington Heights and Inwood came together to form the Northern Manhattan Community Land Trust (NMCLT). They were tired of reacting to displacement and speculation, and were determined to advance an alternative: permanent affordability through community control. 705 and 709 West 170th St. tenants began working with NMCLT to help transition the buildings to permanent community ownership. Faced with possible sale of the buildings without their knowledge, the tenants now want more than another landlord; they want a path to ownership. COPA is a necessary tool for tenants to intervene in and end the predatory cycle, keeping homes livable and affordable for the long haul.

Our elected leadership should choose now to promote a basic value that shouldn’t be controversial: housing is a home first. For tenants living and working in this city, our homes are not vehicles for investment and profit; they are where we raise our families, rest our heads and build our communities. COPA would help families preserve these homes, and the fabric of our city, for generations to come. We urge the City Council to override Eric Adam’s veto.

Gilbert Butcher is a tenant leader at 705 and 709 West 170th Street, Manhattan. Paloma Lara is President of Northern Manhattan Community Land Trust.

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