Mexico has assigned elite federal agents to hunt for Canadian fugitive Ryan Wedding, CBC News has learned.

Their involvement in the search for the former Olympian — one of the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives — signals a continued thaw in relations between Mexican authorities and their U.S. counterparts, who previously accused local officials of helping Wedding evade capture.

Wedding, who competed for Canada as a snowboarder at the 2002 Olympic Games in Utah, is accused of running a $1-billion US criminal enterprise that routinely smuggles truckloads of cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine across North America. Mexico has also linked Wedding's network to international arms trafficking.

The Thunder Bay, Ont., native and his second-in-command, fellow Canadian Andrew Clark, are charged with

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