Ryan Wedding, the Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin, has been arrested, US law enforcement officials announced on Friday.

Wedding, 44, has been sought by the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for his role in overseeing what the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, called the “one of the most prolific and violent drug-trafficking organizations” in the world.

Officials in the US allege that Wedding’s organisation had moved nearly 60 metric tons of cocaine a year into Los Angeles from Mexico using a network of semitrucks. Wedding is also accused of ordering the killing of a key FBI witness as well as several other murders, including that of a couple who were killed in a case of mistaken identity.

US authorities had previously said that they believed Wedding to be in hiding in Mexico. On Thursday, the FBI director, Kash Patel, was in Mexico City for meetings with the country’s security chief, Omar García Harfuch. And on Friday morning he left with a souvenir: Ryan Wedding, and another, unnamed, “priority objective”.

García Harfuch released a statement saying that Patel was leaving with “a non-US citizen who was arrested by Mexican authorities and is among the FBI’s 10 most wanted, and a Canadian citizen who voluntarily surrendered yesterday at the US embassy”.

NBC News first announced news of the arrest and US law enforcement officials familiar with the operation confirmed it to the Guardian.

In March, Wedding, whose nicknames include “Public Enemy”, “El Jefe” and “Giant”, was added to the FBI’s list of 10 most wanted fugitives, and there was a $15m reward for information leading to his arrest.

Patel, who is due to speak to the media later in the day from California, has compared Wedding to Pablo Escobar and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

The head of the RCMP, Michael Duheme, will also be present.

Wedding was allegedly being protected by the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico while he was on the run.

More details soon …