You couldn't sell me a movie about an ex-Olympic snowboarder from Canada turned cartel kingpin storing $40 million of MotoGP bikes stored in Mexico because it's just too mental. But that's exactly the story of Ryan James Wedding, one of the FBI's most wanted criminals, as told in a recent FBI Los Angeles X account post. But that's only the headline of this story because when you dive into the intricacies of what bikes he owned, the questions of how they came into his possession come flooding behind.
The 44-year-old Canadian national obviously had a thing for GP bikes, but a particular liking for Ducatis. The collection seized by the FBI, which the Bureau believes Wedding owns, included several Ducati MotoGP bikes belonging to Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso, Loris Capirossi, and Andrea Iannone. But the collection dives deeper into the annals of GP-winning motorcycles.
Wedding also had Marc Marquez's Moto2 championship-winning bike from 2012 and Rossi's Aprilia 125cc championship-winning bike from 1997. That's at least seven Ducati MotoGP rides, a couple more GP bikes from the lower classes, a load of Scott Russell's ZXR750s, and some yet-to-be identified bikes—although one looks like a GSX-R 750RR RK—making up the 62-motorcycle collection. Seeing all these bikes in one place would be a dream come true for a GP fan, but when you realize the conditions they were kept in, it'd feel more like a nightmare.
"This month, Mexican authorities executed multiple search warrants and seized a large number of motorcycles with an estimated value of approximately $40 million, believed to belong to Ryan James Wedding, one of the FBI's ten most wanted fugitives. This successful seizure is the result of collaboration between Mexican authorities, the FBI, the RCMP, and the LAPD HQ."
When ex-MotoGP bikes are sold, it's usually pretty big news. So how did one man accumulate $40 million worth of the rarest bikes in the world without anyone knowing?
Ducati has its own sales channel for 'memorabilia', as does MotoGP itself, so the two most logical ways for Wedding to get his hands on all these bikes are for him or someone close to him to buy directly from Ducati and/or MotoGP or for him to buy from several collectors. But how he got his hands on so many of Scott Russell's World Superbike and AMA Superbike championship-winning bikes remains a mystery.
The story gets worse.
Now that the 62-bike haul is in the authorities' hands, it's unclear whether or not they'll be destroyed. Hopefully, they won't, and the motorcycles will be stored correctly or, even better, auctioned off. It's generally known that a large amount of money moves through Formula 1 memorabilia, but until now, MotoGP bikes have never in this realm. It'll be interesting to see where authorities wind up when they follow the money.
In the post issued by the FBI showing the seizure, it also mentioned that, "there is a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction. If you have any information about Wedding, please contact the FBI." The number of crimes tied to Weddings is longer than the list of motorcycles in this seizure, so you can rest assured that the $15 million reward is justified.
