Ryan Wedding case: arrest, seized motorcycles, what’s next

Mexico plans to auction 62 motorcycles seized in raids linked to the U.S. case against former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding on Nov. 11 and 12, while Wedding, who has pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking and murder charges, awaits a trial now scheduled for October 2027.

Every allegation in the case is unproven unless a court has ruled on it. Wedding is presumed innocent. This explainer relies on statements from named authorities, public court appearances and news reports of court filings, and was checked on Nov. 3, 2026.

Mexico’s asset-recovery agency, known as INDEP, will sell the motorcycles in person at the Salón Ambrosía in Mexico City starting at 9 a.m. on both days, according to Infobae and La Prensa de Coahuila. Bidders must register and post a deposit by Nov. 10. Starting prices for the bikes run from 21,500 pesos to 2,547,200 pesos, and they are part of a larger sale of 620 lots that also includes aircraft, boats, jewellery and armoured vehicles. INDEP says the goods are in forfeiture proceedings, the reports said.

Mexican authorities seized the motorcycles on Dec. 24, 2025, during four raids in Mexico City and the State of Mexico, according to the same reports. The FBI said in a post on Dec. 31 that the motorcycles are “believed to be owned by” Wedding and estimated their value at about US$40 million, Fox News reported. The ownership claim is the FBI’s. No court has ruled on it in the sources reviewed.

The U.S. Treasury Department had already sanctioned Wedding and associates on Nov. 19, 2025, under an executive order aimed at illicit drug networks. In its announcement, Treasury said Wedding is responsible for trafficking multi-ton quantities of cocaine, and the FBI alleged he had ordered dozens of murders. Those are allegations.

Wedding was arrested in Mexico City on Jan. 22, 2026, and flown to California, according to the U.S. State Department. Mexican officials said he turned himself in at the U.S. Embassy. His lawyer, Anthony Colombo, disputed that account after the first court appearance. “He was arrested,” Colombo said, according to the Associated Press. Our earlier coverage includes the arrest announcement and a timeline of events that led up to it.

On Jan. 26, Wedding pleaded not guilty in federal court in Santa Ana, Calif. U.S. Magistrate Judge John D. Early ordered him held in custody, saying he could not immediately find conditions that would ensure public safety or Wedding’s appearance in court, the AP reported. A 2024 federal indictment alleges he ran a criminal enterprise, conspired to distribute cocaine and was involved in murders. A later indictment alleges he orchestrated the killing of a witness in Colombia. Prosecutors allege he worked under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel, the AP reported. Wedding also faces separate Canadian charges, the AP said.

The trial has since slipped. U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett granted a joint request from prosecutors and the defence in early September to move the Los Angeles trial to October 2027, citing a case that is “so unusual and so complex,” according to a CBC report carried by Yahoo News Canada on Sept. 4. Court papers describe “terabytes of data discovery,” the report said. Infobae gives the start date as Oct. 26, 2027. Colombo told CBC he does not expect Wedding to sign a plea agreement.

Others charged in the case are at different stages, CBC reported. One person remains a fugitive, three men are in custody in Ontario and are fighting extradition to the United States, and one has become an FBI informant and is in U.S. custody. We have not named them here because their cases are separate and unproven. Evidence heard at Canadian bail hearings can be covered by publication bans, and this story does not rely on it.

Next steps are procedural. Wedding remains in custody, the extradition fights continue in Canada, and the Mexican sale goes ahead on Nov. 11 and 12. We found no date for the next hearing in the sources reviewed. We will update this page when a court or a named official reports a change.

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Sources: INDEP auction notice as reported by Infobae and La Prensa de Coahuila (Nov. 2, 2026); U.S. Department of the Treasury (Nov. 19, 2025); U.S. Department of State; Associated Press via PBS NewsHour (Jan. 26, 2026); Fox News (Dec. 31, 2025); CBC News via Yahoo News Canada (Sept. 4, 2026). Featured photo: a Ducati Desmosedici RR at a 2015 Paris auction, file photo, not one of the seized bikes; Thesupermat, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.