SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder pleaded not responsible to working a billion-dollar drug trafficking ring and orchestrating a number of killings, as one of many FBI’s prime fugitives made his first U.S. courtroom look Monday since he was arrested in Mexico final week and flown to California.
U.S. authorities say Ryan Marriage ceremony, who competed in a single occasion for his dwelling nation within the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, had been hiding in Mexico for greater than a decade. He was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives listing final March when authorities supplied a $15 million reward for info resulting in his arrest and conviction.
Authorities say Marriage ceremony moved as a lot as 60 tons of cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Canada and Southern California and consider he was working beneath the safety of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful drug rings.
His drug trafficking group was the most important provider of cocaine to Canada, in response to a 2024 indictment in his dwelling nation, the place he faces separate drug costs courting again to 2015.
Mexican officers mentioned he turned himself in on the U.S. Embassy in Mexico Metropolis final week and was flown to Southern California after a yearlong effort by authorities in the US, Mexico, Canada, Colombia and the Dominican Republic to arrest him.
When chatting with reporters Monday outdoors the federal courtroom in Santa Ana, south of Los Angeles, Marriage ceremony’s protection legal professional Anthony Colombo disputed that his consumer had turned himself in in Mexico and mentioned he was dwelling in Mexico, not hiding on the market.
“He was arrested,” Colombo mentioned after the temporary listening to, providing no additional particulars. “He didn’t give up.”
Colombo mentioned his consumer was in “good spirits” however added that “this has been a whirlwind for Mr. Marriage ceremony.”
Federal prosecutors declined to remark after the listening to. Marriage ceremony was scheduled to be again in courtroom Feb. 11 and a trial date was set for Mar. 24.
Marriage ceremony arrived in courtroom carrying a tan jail jumpsuit along with his ankles chained. He smiled briefly, then clasped his palms and leaned again in his chair earlier than reviewing papers along with his legal professional. When requested by U.S. Justice of the Peace John D. Early if he learn the indictments filed towards him, Marriage ceremony answered, “I’ve learn them each, sure.”
The choose ordered him held in custody, saying he couldn’t instantly discover situations that will guarantee public security or Marriage ceremony’s look in courtroom. He mentioned he may contemplate bond if Marriage ceremony seeks it later.
Mexico has increasingly sent detained cartel members to the U.S. because the nation makes an attempt to offset mounting threats by U.S. President Donald Trump, who mentioned final month U.S. forces “will now begin hitting land” south of the border to focus on drug trafficking rings.
Marriage ceremony was indicted in 2024 on federal costs of working a legal enterprise, homicide, conspiring to distribute cocaine and different crimes.
The homicide costs accuse Marriage ceremony of directing the 2023 killings of two members of a Canadian household in retaliation for a stolen drug cargo, and for ordering a killing over a drug debt in 2024. Final 12 months, Marriage ceremony was indicted on new costs of orchestrating the killing of a witness in Colombia to assist him keep away from extradition to the U.S.
Marriage ceremony was beforehand convicted within the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and sentenced to jail in 2010. On-line data present he was launched from Bureau of Prisons custody in 2011.
The 2024 Canadian indictment says Marriage ceremony’s group obtained cocaine from Colombia and labored with Mexican cartels to maneuver medication by boat and airplane to Mexico after which into the U.S. utilizing semitrucks, the indictment mentioned. It mentioned the group saved cocaine in Southern California earlier than sending it to Canada and different U.S. states.
