Appeared in Cafe Racer Magazine's February / March 2026 issue.

​

​

BY ANTHONY CONROY, Cafe Racer Magazine​​

 

As far as viral social media posts go, few created a stir in the motorcycling community quite like this.

 

The investigation of international drug smuggler and former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding took a surprising turn on Dec. 29 when the FBI's Los Angeles office released photos showing a collection of what appears to be some serious motorcycling hardware.

 

According to the FBI, the trove of rare and exotic motorcycles – along with four properties, cars, drugs and art – were seized by Mexican law enforcement and belongs to the 44-year-old fugitive, wanted on charges of murder and leading a cocaine ring that smuggled drugs from Mexico into the U.S. and Canada.

 

The cache of bikes, 62 in all and valued around $40 million, includes prototype MotoGP machinery and grand prix works bikes. There are motorcycles that raced in the World Superbike championship, several vintage racebikes, and other production motorcycles. (See our infographic to get a greater appreciation for the scale of the bust.)

 

"It's a fascinating collection and it's raising the question of how did this guy get these things?" asked Dave Roper, a Team Obsolete rider who knows a few things about racebikes. "I mean, you could buy something like an MV America just on auction somewhere or from a private party, but the works MotoGP bikes are very interesting. It's also interesting how they got out into the public."

​

High-End Dealings

​

How Wedding, who sits on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list, got his hands on the motorcycles is murky, at best.

 

According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, which said it "cut Wedding and his criminal partners off from the U.S. financial system," the motorcycles were purchased as part of a money laundering network in which high-end vehicles — including a $13 million 2002 Mercedes CLK-GTR — were procured and managed in part by former Italian special forces soldier Gianluca Tiepolo. Tiepolo owns high-end vehicle dealerships Stile Italiano SRL in Pordenone, Italy, and Colchester, England-based TMR Ltd.

 

It is unknown if the Ducati MotoGP bikes seen most prominently in the photos — they include eight Desmosedici GP bikes that feature Valentino Rossi (3), Andrea Iannone (2), Andrea Dovisioso (1), Jorge Lorenzo (1), and Loris Capirossi (1) liveries — were purchased directly by Tiepolo, his holdings or an intermediary.

 

Several emails sent to Ducati seeking comment were unanswered, as were calls and emails to the Mexican National Guard, the federal agency responsible for the seizure, seeking additional photos and a full catalog of the motorcycles.

 

Many of the bikes show a championship-winning pedigree. Among the collection is a Moto 2 bike from 2011 or 2012, raced by current world champion Marc Marquez. There is a 1994 Aprilia RS125 raced by Valentino Rossi during his rookie year in the world championship. There are two Honda NSR500s, a 1984 raced by Freddie Spencer and an '87 ridden by Wayne Garner. Also in the mix is a Team Roberto Gallina Nava/Olio Fiat Suzuki RGB500.

 

And there are Kawasaki ZX-7R Superbikes, at least two of them raced by Scott Russell (both have No. 1 plates) and late Aussie legend Anthony Gobert. There’s a Carl Fogarty Ducati 916. Another photo taken at the scene — a fifth shared by the Mexican government and being used only by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation — shows the fronts of the Suzuki, the Spencer/Gardner Hondas, the Russell Kawasakis, and it also shows a Ducati with a No. 155 number plate belonging to American Ben Bostrom.

 

Other motorcycles are rare: the revolutionary 1987 NSR500-powered Ron Haslam Elf Honda, a Mike Hailwood Replica Ducati, and a Ducati Supermono. The Supermono, designed by the Borgo Panigale company's chief engineer, Massimo Bordi, and developed by another engineer who would go on to bigger things — company CEO Claudio Domenicali — had a short production run. At least 65 copies (the number is disputed) of the legendary 549cc single were produced between 1993 and 1995. With a claimed weight of 260 pounds (bone dry) and capable of producing a maximum 75 horsepower, the Supermono punches small but hits big on the track and in the wallet. Buying one today will cost between $85,000 to $200,000.

 

Two of the photos, one from the side and another from the front, show a Ducati Scuderia/NCR 860 sponsored by Japanese-based Power House Motor Club. In a blog post, Satoshi Yoshizawa, the PHMC's current president, said the motorcycle was brought to Japan from Europe by then-club president Tetsuo Nakano with the intention of using it in the 1983 Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race. While Nakano rode the bike in several events, it never did race in the prestigious Suzuka 8 Hours.

 

"Amidst all this, what caught my eye was the red and gold bevel, which took up half of the mere four images," wrote Yoshizawa. "Being selected from among 62 prestigious bikes must have meant it strongly appealed to the FBI agents in some way."

 

Yoshizawa said the 860 stayed in Nakano's garage "for a long time." It eventually made it into the hands of a Japanese Ducati enthusiast who restored it after 2000. The 860 and the Mike Hailwood Replica, which Yoshizawa said is "undoubtedly" part of the same collection, were sold to someone in Europe in May 2019, which Yoshizawa wrote was likely the intermediary.

 

OWNING A GP BIKE

 

So how connected does one have to be get a MotoGP bike or works Grand Prix bike?

 

"It's all about who you know," said Kaming Ko, 71, a former racing team manager and enthusiast, who owns two Ducati Desmosedici racers, one with Nicky Hayden and the other with Valentino Rossi livery. "Generally, they don't announce that their bikes are for sale. You have to be in their inner circle."

 

From his Los Angeles home, Ko said he has serious doubts that Wedding or Tiepolo are in that circle. While there occasionally are headlines about people in racing being involved in drug dealing, "the people inside Ducati would never do a deal with somebody like that. No way," he said.

 

There may also be a reason that the collection leans heavily toward Italian and not Japanese motorcycles.

 

The Japanese brands, he said, rarely sell to collectors, but instead go to riders who've won championships or are contracted to receive a bike, or to museums. The Italian brands, on the other hand, will sell their motorcycles to help fund future racing endeavors.

 

When the Japanese do release a bike, Ko said, they "will remove the crank so you cannot fire it up again. The Japanese are famous for pouring hot lead inside the cylinder."

 

Italians prefer that their bikes continue running after being sold. In Ko's case, the bike was re-tuned to lower peak RPM. And while his GP11 spends most of its time in the living room of his Los Angeles home, it is still a working machine. He fires it up a few times a year to circulate the fluids and tries to take it to the track at least once a year.

 

Ko declined to say how much he paid for his GP11. Typically, he said, the average MotoGP bikes go for $300,000 to $400,000, but the more impressive a bike's pedigree — how it finished in the championship and who rode it — the higher the cost, even millions.

 

One troublesome thing about the photos is the apparent lack of maintenance. And when racebikes sit around, unridden and dormant, pistons seize, parts rust, calipers lock, gaskets dry out, and fluids crystallize. Ko doubts Wedding had the people necessary to maintain the collection, which was spread out among four of Wedding's properties in Mexico.

 

"I don't think he has anybody maintaining it," he said. "I don't think he even rides them. It's just for laundering money and that's it. I don't think he knows the history of any of these freaking bikes."

 

The Mexican agents who led the raids didn't do the collection justice either. First, the bikes are being stored, presumably in Mexico, in a facility that looks like an oversized dungeon. Second, someone had the nerve to lean a dirtbike against one of Rossi's GP11s.

 

So what happens with the collection next is anybody's guess. Federal agencies have a tendency to destroy seized property, but it seems unlikely that anyone — even a government — would be dumb enough to throw away $40 million in exotic motorcycles.

 

If you want to add to your own collection, keep your eyes open. The U.S. Department of State is offering a reward of $15 million for information leading to Wedding's arrest and conviction. The FBI said Wedding is most likely living in Mexico and being protected by the Sinaloa Cartel.

​