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Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding was charged with two additional counts of witness tampering, intimidation, murder, money laundering and drug trafficking, and federal officials increased the reward for his capture to $15 million on Wednesday.
Wedding, 44, and 14 other alleged associates were accused of orchestrating the January 2025 murder of a witness who was shot to death at a restaurant in Colombia. Authorities said Wedding placed a bounty on the victim’s head thinking her death would lead to the dismissal of charges against him and the drug trafficking ring he is allegedly the head of.
Wedding is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and is described as “an extremely violent criminal believed responsible for the murder of numerous people overseas,” according to federal officials.
“You can’t become a drug lord and evade the law,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Make no mistake about it. Ryan Wedding is a modern version of Pablo Escobar. He is a modern version of ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán. This Department of Justice and this FBI will work with our Canadian counterparts and government officials around the world to bring him to justice.
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Ryan Wedding of Canada performs a practice run for the men’s parallel giant slalom at the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Park City on February 13, 2002. (REUTERS/Jeff J. Mitchell)
“He is responsible for designing a drug trafficking and narcoterrorism program that we have not seen in a long time. He will not evade justice. We are here today because this Department of Justice, behind the brilliant leadership of the Attorney General (Pam Bondi), and the Deputy Attorney General, have made it clear to the American people, with the charges they have brought, that law enforcement agencies like this FBI will lead the effort to come out and ensure that these animals are brought to justice.”
Patel added that anyone with information about Wedding’s whereabouts, “now is the time to speak up.”
Authorities said a website called “The Dirty News” was also shut down as part of their investigation. Authorities said the site was used to post photos of the January murder victim and his wife online in order to “hunt them down and kill them.”
“Your days are numbered. Our agents and prosecutors will relentlessly pursue you and anyone who helps you and bring you to justice. Not just anywhere, we will bring you to justice in the United States of America,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, Central District of California.
Wedding is allegedly responsible for trafficking tons of cocaine through Colombia and Mexico for distribution in the United States and Canada and uses cryptocurrencies to hide his wealth. The FBI has said Wedding has ordered dozens of murders in North and Latin America.
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Ryan Wedding is still at large. (FBI)
“Protecting federal witnesses from retaliation is critical to the department’s mission. It’s about individual safety, but more so, it’s about protecting the rule of law itself,” said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Wedding participated in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City after missing the 1998 Games. They were the only Olympics in which he competed.
In his only event, the men’s parallel giant slalom, Wedding finished in 24th place. Switzerland’s Philipp Schoch won gold, Sweden’s Richard Rikardsson won silver and Chris Klug of the United States took bronze.
Wedding was first linked to criminal activity in 2006. He and another competitive snowboarder were named in a search warrant for a home in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, that was investigated for growing large amounts of marijuana, according to The Vancouver Sun.
Police confiscated 6,800 marijuana plants from that house, but no one was charged.
Wedding was first arrested in 2009 in the United States after traveling with two friends from Vancouver to California to allegedly buy 24 kilograms of Colombian cocaine. The FBI determined that Wedding was working for a drug dealer in Vancouver at the time.
He served a four-year prison sentence after agreeing to forfeit more than $121,000 seized during an airport sting operation and agreeing to drop an appeal of his conviction.
In 2015, Wedding faced new charges for drug offenses in Nova Scotia. Since then, however, he has been on the run.
American investigators believed Wedding was being protected by the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico and resumed trafficking shortly after his release from prison. Federal authorities first issued an arrest warrant for Wedding in September 2024.
Wedding is also believed to go by the aliases “El Jefe”, “Giant”, “Public Enemy”, “James Conrad King” and “Jesse King” and is estimated to have transported more than $1 billion worth of cocaine.
Wedding and his alleged accomplice Andrew Clark, who was arrested in October 2024 and extradited earlier this year, are accused of coordinating the murder of an Ontario family “in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through Southern California.”
Canada’s Ryan wedding at the 2002 Olympics. (Tony Marshall/EMPICS via Getty Images)
The FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police allege that Wedding and Clark coordinated a double homicide in November 2023 in Ontario that involved an innocent couple in a mistaken identity killing, according to the FBI.
Wedding and Clark are also accused of coordinating the murder of another person in May over a drug debt.
The murder and criminal enterprise charges against Wedding carry a mandatory minimum sentence of life in federal prison.
