Sport

Former Olympic snowboarder wanted by FBI on murder and drug charges

Ryan Wedding indicted with 15 others on charges of running transnational drug trafficking operation

Canada's Ryan Wedding competes in the qualifying round of the men's parallel giant slalom snowboarding event during the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games in February 2002. Photograph: Adam Pretty/Getty Images
Canada's Ryan Wedding competes in the qualifying round of the men's parallel giant slalom snowboarding event during the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games in February 2002. Photograph: Adam Pretty/Getty Images
Hank Sanders
Fri Oct 18 2024 - 09:30

A Canadian snowboarder who competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics is wanted by the FBI on charges of conspiring to ship hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into Canada and the United States and on suspicion of orchestrating multiple murders, the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced in a statement Thursday.

The snowboarder, Ryan James Wedding (43), born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, was indicted along with 15 others on charges of running a transnational drug trafficking operation that shipped bulk quantities of cocaine from California to Canada from about January to April 2024, the US attorney’s office said in its statement.

Wedding, a fugitive who was believed to be living in Mexico, was charged with eight felonies including one count of conspiracy to export cocaine and three counts of murder in connection with a drug crime.

“An Olympic athlete-turned-drug lord is now charged with leading a transnational organised crime group that engaged in cocaine trafficking and murder, including of innocent civilians,” said Martin Estrada, the US attorney for the Central District of California.

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Last year, Wedding and another defendant, Andrew Clark (34), directed the “murders of two members of a family in Ontario, Canada,” in retaliation “for a stolen drug shipment,” the US attorney’s office said, confirming Clark was arrested earlier this month. The duo also “ordered the murder of another victim” over a drug debt in May, the statement added.

Wedding, who had aliases including El Jefe, Giant and Public Enemy, was the leader of the criminal network, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. The Canadian police said methamphetamines had also been trafficked by the network. Wedding “is wanted by the United States and Canada on separate charges,” the Canadian police said.

In 2010, Wedding was sentenced by a US judge to four years in prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, according to court records.

In 2006, Wedding was named in a search warrant in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, in an investigation concerning large quantities of marijuana, but he was never charged, according to his athlete profile on Olympics.com.

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 (€46,000) for any information leading to Wedding’s arrest.

A majority of the 16 people named in the indictment were captured by the authorities in the United States and Canada as part of an operation led by the FBI called Operation Giant Slalom, the Canadian police said. Slalom is an Olympic event in which competitors are timed as they ski or snowboard down a slope while weaving through a flagged obstacle course.

Wedding placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom snowboarding event in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. – New York Times

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