Authorities in Mexico have seized a collection of over 60 race and exotic motorcycles, including a number of machines raced by Valentino Rossi, as part of an investigation into Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who is on the FBI’s Top 10 ‘Most Wanted’ list after being charged with overseeing the operations of a criminal enterprise – including by engaging in witness intimidation tactics such as murder – and enriching himself with the enterprise’s laundered drug proceeds.
The motorcycles are believed to be owned by 44-year-old Wedding, for whom there is a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest, and the grainy photos were released by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), who said the seizure was a result of a collaboration between Mexican authorities, the FBI, Canadian police and the Los Angeles Police Department. Wedding is thought to be living in Mexico, where the motorcycle collection was stored and found.
The bike collection appears to include Rossi’s first Aprilia RS125 Grand Prix bike and at least eight factory Ducati MotoGP race bikes, including machines raced by world champions Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Loris Capirossi and Andrea Dovizioso. There are numerous other Ducatis in the haul, including factory world superbike racers, a rare Supermono from the 1990s and a number of 1980s machines.
Classic Honda Grand Prix bikes from the 1980s, and an ex-Ron Haslam ELF Honda can also be seen, nestling alongside a trio of works Kawasaki ZX-7RR race bikes. Another photo shows Marc Marquez’ championship winning Kalex Moto2 racer among the seized items, as well as what appears to be an ex-Virginio Ferrari Suzuki RG500 from 1979.
The FBI are valuing the bikes at a staggering US $40 million, and it will be interesting to see the true value of these extremely rare motorcycles when they inevitably flood back into the classic motorcycle marketplace in the years ahead.
