Canadian former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, 43, who is a fugitive, is seen top left, with 15 other defendants who have been charged in a 16-count superseding indictment for allegedly running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine, from Colombia, through Mexico and Canada and other locations in the United States.
Damian Dovarganes/AP
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Damian Dovarganes/AP
A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned alleged international drug trafficker is now listed on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list — a collection of the most notorious fugitives sought by the agency.
Ryan James Wedding, 43, is wanted for allegedly running a drug trafficking operation that regularly shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico, the U.S. and Canada and for allegedly orchestrating multiple murders to further his illegal drug empire.
Wedding, who was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, competed in Giant Slalom snowboarding during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, finishing 24th. Now, the State Department is offering a $10 million award for information that leads to his arrest.
“Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of U.S. cities and in his native Canada,” said Akil Davis, the assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, in a statement. “The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man, and his addition to the list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, coupled with a major reward offer by the State Department, will make the public our partner so that we can catch up with him before he puts anyone else in danger.”
Last June, Wedding, along with his “second-in-command” Andrew Clark, 34, also Canadian, were charged with numerous felonies including running a criminal enterprise, murder and conspiring to distribute and export cocaine, among other charges.
In September, a superseding indictment added an attempted murder charge against Wedding and Clark. Federal prosecutors claim Wedding, Clark and other co-conspirators planned to ship bulk quantities of cocaine from Southern California to Canada through a Canada-based drug transportation network, from around January 2024 until August 2024.
Ryan Wedding in 2024.
/FBI
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/FBI
To achieve their goals, Wedding and Clark’s organization “resorted to violence,” the FBI said.
The two men allegedly ordered the November 2023 murders of two people, from the same family, in Ontario, in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment. Another member of that family survived that attack with serious injuries. Wedding and Clark allegedly ordered the murder of another person on May 18, 2024, over a drug debt, the FBI says.
Clark, who was arrested last October by Mexican authorities, was among 29 fugitives who arrived in the United States from Mexico last week.
If convicted, Wedding and Clark could face a mandatory minimum penalty of life in federal prison, according to the FBI.
Investigators believe that Wedding is living in Mexico, but have not ruled out the possibility he could be in the U.S., Canada or somewhere in Central America.
